ALKHOBAR, 4 January 2005 — The World Wide Web and international IT vendors are playing a vital role in relief operations aiding victims of Asia’s tsunami. The web portal Yahoo! has seen an extraordinary level of generosity from its 325 million users worldwide. In less than three days, Yahoo! users raised millions of dollars for organizations including the American Red Cross, UNICEF, Oxfam, Network for Good and AmeriCares, whose donation sites received up to 500,000 clicks daily.
Yahoo! has dedicated headline links on 14 of its international home pages to help generate funds for relief organizations. Yahoo! has also donated the creation and hosting of the American Red Cross donation site (http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate/), which raised $1.2 million from more than 11,000 donors in its first 18 hours of availability.
Yahoo! is not alone. Kintera, a provider of online fundraising technology to nonprofits, estimated that their clients — including the US Fund for UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders — would soon surpass $20 million raised online since the disaster.
“The ease and immediacy of using the Internet has already resulted in millions of dollars donated to assist the victims of this horrific tragedy in Asia,” said Harry E. Gruber, MD, CEO of technology provider Kintera. “These financial gifts enable organizations to quickly provide shelter, safe water, food and emergency care to those in need, especially children.”
JustGive, a US nonprofit organization that uses technology to increase overall giving, has made it easier for people concerned about the devastation in Asia and Africa to take action. JustGive has compiled a centralized list of qualified charities that are taking a leading role in humanitarian relief efforts in tsunami devastated areas. JustGive has organized charitable organizations on its “Provide Aid to Southeast Asia” web page by category of focus: Food and Safe Drinking Water, General Relief, Medical Care and Supplies and Rebuilding, along with the ability to donate to one or more of the organizations through JustGive’s website.
Kendall Webb, executive director, JustGive, said: “People want to ensure that their money goes directly to tsunami aid, versus being directed to other funds within large relief organizations. By donating money electronically through JustGive’s website, http://www.justgive.org/html/ways/tsunami.html, gifts are automatically designated to the charities’ tsunami disaster relief funds.”
Another website encouraging individuals to make charitable donations to tsunami relief funds is the search leader Google. Google.com is doing its part for tsunami relief by empowering its web search services to aggregate the latest news coverage on the tsunami and has created a page with links to websites where people can make donations.
While the Internet has helped in the rapid collection of charitable funds from individuals, international IT vendors have also stepped up to the line and made significant contributions to tsunami relief. Symbol Technologies has pledged $150,000 in aid to the American Red Cross, Mercy Corps and UNICEF in order to help with the emergency humanitarian efforts.
Symbol’s 6,000 global employees quickly responded to the company’s donation with their own contributions to the Symbol Disaster Relief Fund. For example, Symbol employees in India donated one day’s pay to assist in this aid effort.
“Symbol is deeply concerned by the devastation that has occurred and is pledging its support for the international aid workers helping those directly impacted by this catastrophe,” said Symbol President & CEO William Nuti. “We offer our sincere condolences and hope that our company’s gesture, together with the heartfelt giving of our employees worldwide, will help to rebuild those communities directly affected by this disaster.”
Communications technology giant Nortel and its employees are providing $700,000 in funds to assist disaster relief in tsunami hit nations.
“Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to the tens of thousands of people impacted by this tragedy directly and their grieving families and friends around the world,” said Bill Owens, president and CEO, Nortel. “On a daily basis, we are a global company committed to enhancing the human experience and solving some of the world’s greatest challenges through our technologies. With a firm commitment to Asia and a strong presence in the region that includes India, China, Japan, Korea and dozens of other Asia Pacific countries, Nortel has a heritage, responsibility and privilege of helping where we have customers, employees and partners. So today we are proud to join the international efforts to support those working tirelessly to deliver the most basic needs to the most vulnerable.”
Nortel will make a $350,000 corporate donation to the Red Cross and UNICEF and will ask Nortel employees globally to provide matching donations to double the relief funds. In addition, Nortel is working with local agencies and governments in the affected areas to identify what other on-the-ground support the company can offer through deployment of its networking technologies and the efforts of it local staff to assist in emergency communications and rebuilding requirements.
While all contributors to tsunami relief funds are to be commended, thus far Cisco Systems has made the largest single donation. Cisco Systems and its employees are giving in excess of $2.5 million for humanitarian relief and rebuilding efforts. The donation comprises $1 million contributed by the company, as well as a minimum of $1 million from the Cisco Foundation to match employee donations. Currently, Cisco employees and executives have donated over $460,000 and the company expects this figure to reach $1 million, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Cisco Foundation.
Cisco is working in concert with nongovernmental associations including the Red Cross and government agencies to determine the best allocations for the donations. Funds will also support rebuilding efforts including the potential of enhancing early warning systems for seismic activity in the region.
“On behalf of the employees of Cisco, I’d like to express our deepest sympathy and condolences to all of those affected by the earthquake and tsunami that struck Asia and Africa,” said John Chambers, Cisco president and CEO. “Giving back is a key element of our corporate culture. We are a global company with a strong presence in Asia, and we see it as our responsibility to help the local communities where we have employees, customers and partners rebuild after this tragedy.”
In addition to the donation, Cisco is working with the NetHope consortium, to make NetRelief Kits available to its member organizations for immediate deployment to the stricken areas. These kits will provide an easy to set up and operate communications hub for disaster management where normal communications infrastructure is absent or destroyed and are augmented by NetHope with mobile satellite communications capability from Inmarsat. NetHope is in the process of assessing data to identify locations throughout the region for deployment of these kits.
While it might be thought that the victims in this terrible tragedy could only benefit from the use of technology resources, there are of course those criminals who turn to any means to prey on the misfortune of others. UK police have arrested a 40-year-old man for sending a series of hoax e-mails to relatives of people missing in Asia’s tsunami, saying that their loved ones were confirmed dead. According to the police, all the hoax e-mails came from one fake e-mail address, [email protected].
“The British government would not use e-mail to convey news of the death of a loved one,” UK police said. “Anyone receiving such an e-mail should treat it with utmost caution.”