Humanitarian Response
On this page:
Overview, Challenges, and Opportunities
Our approach to humanitarian response
What We’re Doing
Our progress in FY2011
What’s Next
Our priorities for the year ahead
Partner Spotlight: Digital Office Japan
In just a matter of days after the earthquake hit in Japan...
Read more
Humanitarian Response
People and businesses who have suffered a disaster need help as quickly as possible. Microsoft works with partners to use technology to accelerate communication between response organizations, enable accurate communication with the public, and speed the return to normalcy. We provide customers with the support and services that they need to get their businesses back up and running as quickly as possible. A fast recovery not only benefits communities, but also decreases the economic impact on the economy.
Challenges
- Natural disasters are increasing globally.
- The destruction of infrastructure in humanitarian emergency situations makes communication and coordinated response difficult.
Opportunities
- Partnering with relief agencies and governments to help respond to disasters
- Using the cloud to bypass infrastructure problems to get responders and those affected back to normal faster
- Encouraging employee giving and volunteering
- Driving global donations and awareness through social media
What We're Doing
Microsoft activated company-wide responses to two major humanitarian emergencies in FY2011: the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the flooding in Pakistan. The company also supported relief efforts for more than 40 other disasters around the world.
The earthquake and tsunami in Japan was one of the world’s largest humanitarian disasters and our most significant engagement in FY2011. A summary of our response follows. For information on our response to other recent disasters, visit the Microsoft Citizenship website.
| Japan Earthquake and Tsunami | |
|---|---|
| Affected Group | Microsoft Response |
| Response Organizations |
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| Government and Infrastructure Providers |
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| Local and International Public |
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| Customers and Partners |
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Microsoft and its employees also contributed approximately $3.4 million to help victims of the disaster in Japan.
In addition,to support our ongoing commitment to help bring technology to remote refugee camps with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the Community Technology Access (CTA) program added 6 new centers in FY2011; bringing the total number of centers to 31 spanning Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kenya, Mauritania, Nepal, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen.
What's Next
Our priorities for FY2012 include:
- Strengthening and building cross-industry relationships with technology partners to offer a more robust suite of technology solutions that address some of the toughest challenges of disaster response.
- Implementing more cloud solutions in disaster situations, including the Disaster Response cloud-based portal that was piloted in Japan.
- Helping businesses restart after a disaster. Building on the work we did in giving businesses access to cloud solutions to help them restart their operations, we will add consulting services for affected customers and partners to help them find the best technology to speed their recovery.
Partner Spotlight
Digital Office Japan
In just a matter of days after the earthquake hit in Japan, Microsoft partner Digital Office Japan developed and deployed J!ResQ, a cloud application that helps people displaced by the earthquake find their loved ones. Built on Windows Azure, J!ResQ allows the user to record and automatically send a voice message from their mobile phone to their family’s and friends’ email addresses about their well-being and their GPS-based location. J!ResQ also enables people to search for missing people by using their email addresses.
More than 15,000 people used J!ResQ to find one another in the days and weeks after the earthquake.
