This week, we're bringing you the first installment of a new series that we'll occasionally produce: Disaster Dispatches. Each dispatch focuses on a specific disaster and will feature a short conversation with someone within or near a specific disaster zone who can provide insight into how things look on the ground and, in many cases, share first-hand accounts of the response.

First up, we have Meena Palaniappan joining us once again, this time to talk about the recent 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the city of Cianjur, which is in the West Java region of Indonesia, on Nov 21st.

Meena Palaniappan is the Founder and CEO of Atma Connect. She's an Ashoka Fellow, Fulbright Fellow, and awardee of the Million Lives Club. Since 2014, Meena has led Atma Connect to become a globally recognized technology company focused on helping vulnerable people connect, neighbor-to-neighbor, by sharing practical information and solutions, taking collective action, and building community resilience.

AtmaConnect built and deploys AtmaGo, a neighborhood-level mobile app in Indonesia and Puerto Rico for users to share real-time information and solutions to better prepare for disasters, improve their access to basic needs, and address chronic vulnerabilities. AtmaGo has reached over 10 million people in Indonesia and Puerto Rico.

Make sure to check out our full-length interview with Meena, where we take a deep dive into her work with Atma Connect more broadly.

Episode credits:

• Host and editor: Robert Raymond
• Presenter and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats

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The Response is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters