One:One Home > What We're Doing For YouSoldiers and Families Enjoy Face to Face Connection Thanks to Support from BT Conferencing
Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are hearing and seeing their families back home thanks to some high-tech help from Freedom Calls Foundation, and BT Conferencing bridging services.
Working closely with corporate contributors, individuals and the military, the Freedom Calls Foundation has built a satellite network connecting three military installations in Iraq with the United States. In 2004, the Foundation installed its first facility offering VOIP telephone, Internet and video conferencing services in an army camp located north of Baghdad. The Foundation's Camp Taji facility offers 30 phones, 4 video conferencing stations, 10 video email stations, and 40 computers with email and Internet access. As a result, more than 17,000 soldiers are able to communicate with their families and loved ones at home on a regular basis 24 hours per day, free of charge.
In 2005, the Foundation installed satellite links and communications facilities at Marine headquarters at Camp Fallujah and Al Asad Airbase in Anbar Province on the Syrian border. The Foundation's three facilities in Iraq now serve nearly 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers, marines and airmen - nearly 2,000 per day. The army has requested that the Foundation install facilities at eight additional army camps in Iraq and two in Afghanistan in the coming months. Each Freedom Calls facility costs about $250,000 to set up and approximately $250,000 a year in maintain. Future deployments will encompass as many as 100 additional locations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations where our overseas troops lack regular communication with their families and loved ones at home.
The Foundation has launched Operation Hometown Link with the generous donation of several corporate and university contributors. Corporations, law firms, schools, hospitals and universities have offered to allow military families to access video conferencing facilities across the country to speak and interact with those deployed overseas. The Foundation hopes to have more than 10,000 sites across the country in the coming months. At these sites, families will be able to speak with and interact with overseas personnel using state of the art video conferencing equipment.
BT Conferencing is proud to take part in many of these calls and will continue to support this valuable initiative.
To learn more about Freedom Calls Foundation visit www.freedomcalls.org . To contact them by mail: Freedom Calls Foundation; 152 Montague Street, Suite 7; Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201; (718) 797-9154
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