In this podcast, SSPI Director of Development and Innovation Lou Zacharilla speaks with Debbie Mavis, Group HR Director at Avanti Communications Group, who accepted a Better Satellite World Award on behalf of Avanti in December 2020 in recognition of its Bidi Bidi Project. Debbie talks about the challenges Avanti has faced and the triumphs it has achieved while working to provide displaced people with the connectivity they need to get back on their feet.

Debbie Mavis is Group HR Director at Avanti Communications Group. She has many years of experience in Talent Management and Human Resources positions throughout the satellite industry and others, including as Head of Talent & Resourcing for TSB Bank and as Head of Resourcing and HR Services at Vodaphone. Debbie accepted a Better Satellite World Award on behalf of Avanti’s Bidi Bidi Project at the 2020 Better Satellite World Awards Celebration.

In 2019, Avanti Communications began to use its satellite technology, which provides coverage across Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and the Middle East, to improve the welfare of refugees, host communities and humanitarian organisations in one of the largest refugee settlements in East Africa, the Bidi Bidi refugee camp. The camp, based in Northern Uganda, hosts over 270,000 displaced people from the neighboring conflict in Southern Sudan, and is located in a remote, off-grid area, making it difficult to provide support for the refugees and the overtaxed host communities and local resources. Avanti partnered with the Social Innovation Academy (SINA) to provide satellite broadband powered by solar energy to the Bidi Bidi site, as electricity is rarely available in the region. This installation is the first of three that Avanti plans to set up in the refugee settlement. Read more about Avanti Communications’ Bidi Bidi Project.

SSPI’s Better Satellite World campaign is made possible with the support of our corporate partners