When the British government delivered emergency aid to people fleeing Islamic militants in northern Iraq last month, one of its primary concerns was how the refugees might charge their mobile phones.
Alongside tents and drinking water, RAF planes dropped more than 1,000 solar-powered lanterns attached to chargers for all types of mobile handsets to the stranded members of the Yazidi religious community below.
It is the first time the lanterns have been airdropped in such a relief effort, but humanitarian workers say it is part of growing efforts to develop technology designed to make a difference in disaster zones.
With roads blocked, infrastructure reduced to rubble and mobile networks down, he realized something needed to be done, and quickly. In 2010, Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen, a computer systems researcher at Flanders University in Australia, was driving to work in his car when he first heard radio reports of the devastation of the Haiti earthquake, more than 10,000 miles away.
"You typically have about three days to restore the communications before the bad people realize the good people aren't in control any more," he says.
His solution was to develop the technology that allows mobile phones to communicate directly with each other even where there is no network coverage, or when mobile masts have been knocked out of action - a system known as "mesh networking".
His Several Project work means users can send text messages, make calls and send files to other users nearby, creating a mobile network through a web of users.
It is just one example of the dozens of technologies developed in the wake of Haiti to help relief efforts in disaster zones.
"There's plenty of technology for rich white men," Dr Gardner-Stephen says. "It's the rest of the world that we need to help."
Technology sea-change
"There are lots of people working on it, but in my view that hasn't happened yet," he says.
Alongside the smaller start-ups typically supported by Mr Scriven's fund, the bigger technology players are beginning to show more interest in humanitarian applications for their technology.
Google recently unveiled its drone programme, which it suggests could be used to airdrop aid into disaster zones.
Last year, the search giant unveiled Project Loon - a plan to deliver internet connections to hard-to-reach places through a network of high-altitude balloons.
Both are in the early stages of development. But aid workers say we are seeing a sea-change in the role of technology in humanitarian relief, and how it can empower those affected by the disaster they find themselves in.
"[Disaster relief] is no longer about just dropping items on people and leaving them to it," says the Red Cross's Sharon Reader.
"There has been a huge shift in the aid world in seeing people who are affected by a crisis not as victims but as people who have the capacity to look after themselves."
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