Google Works to Help Victims of Cyclone Nargis

It is not uncommon for me to feel fortunate to be a Googler (a name those of us who work at Google go by). Afterall, we are working together to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. That's one important mission. And on top of that we work on cool projects, have great benefits and are quite the social bunch.

However, it is days like these that make me beam with pride and feel eternally grateful to be part of such a powerful, involved company. Here's why...

In response to the devastation in Burma, a team of people comprised of 20+ employees across several organizations - .org team members, product managers, marketing managers, webmasters, government relations folks, PR folks, etc. - have come together in the last two days to brainstorm and create solutions to assist with relief efforts in Burma. These efforts include launching a homepage promotion asking users to support victims; partnering with UNICEF and Direct Relief International, both on the ground in Burma, to ensure that every cent of these donations go directly to the relief efforts; providing cyclone imagery to better understand the damage.

You can check out the Google blog post for details:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/helping-victims-of-cyclone-nargis.html

For ease of reading I have also included the post with related links below.

Of course, in additional to being informed, I would like to humbly request that each of you consider supporting Google and these other hard working relief organization's efforts by donating to one of the organizations on the ground via the Checkout page Google has set up - http://www.google.com/myanmarcyclone/

Thanks in advance for your support!

Humbly,
Susan

Helping victims of Cyclone Nargis

5/06/2008 07:20:00 PM

Posted by Josh Mendelsohn, Program Manager

Over the past few days, we've followed the devastation left in the wake of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma). News reports have tallied more than 22,000 dead with another 41,000 missing. We're extremely saddened by the loss of life due to this cyclone, and hope you'd like to help assist with the relief effort.

As we did after last fall's wildfires in Southern California, we've created a Checkout Donations page so you can easily donate to UNICEF or Direct Relief International. Both organizations are working to directly assist the victims on the ground in Myanmar.

To help visualize the damage, there are Google Earth layers showing an animation of the cyclone's path (using satellite imagery from the Naval Research Laboratory) and the extent of the flooding using data from the UN Institute for Training and Research Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). We'll keep posting information to the Lat-Long Blog as more data comes available.

There are also several Google Grants non-profits working to provide relief to those affected. Save the Children currently has a 500-person staff in the area, while Oxfam America has committed $800,000 to help NGOs meet the immediate needs of people. World Vision and Doctors Without Borders are also taking action with two of the most vulnerable populations in the crisis: children and the injured. We are pleased to be working with and supporting these organizations that are contributing directly to cyclone relief. We encourage you to visit them and consider lending them your support, too. For more details on these organizations and other non-profits providing support for the victims of the disaster, visit the Google Grants blog.