In the wake of the 6.1 aftershock in Haiti that caused even more destruction, Google honcho Brin made a trip in person to view the damage. He writes:
… immense challenges do remain and it is a race around the clock to prevent suffering, untreated injury, and loss of life. I believe there are several key factors that could tilt the odds dramatically. First, while there is tremendous relief effort from the US, UN, Haiti, and NGOs, the coordination and organization between these remains unclear. It is critical to have top level command and control across the entire breadth of efforts in order to maximize effectiveness… it is necessary to scale up the provisioning of shelter, food, water, sanitation, and health care by at least an order of magnitude.
Google has been on the forefront of the ‘Help Haiti’ relief effort, as evidenced by their main page dealing with the issue and their maps which they are keeping updated. They also offered free Google Voice calls so people could contact loved ones. Two easy donate buttons are also available:
Donate to CARE
CARE plans to start food distributions using stocks of high-protein biscuits from CARE warehouses in Haiti. CARE has 133 staff who are on the ground coordinating with U.N. agencies and other aid organizations to gather more detailed information about the damage and will rapidly scale up response based on those assessments.
Donate to UNICEF
UNICEF is deploying clean water and sanitation supplies, therapeutic foods, medical supplies and temporary shelter to Jacmel and Port-au-Prince. UNICEF will also be focusing on children who have become separated from their families to protect them from harm or exploitation.
Tags: Google, Haiti, help haiti, Sergey Brin