Microsoft Volunteers Extend Their Help to UN’s International Refugee Efforts
Microsoft employees are contributing their time and technical skills to help UNHCR field workers implement a refugee registration system in 20 countries around the world.
PARIS — 27 Sept., 2004 — Microsoft employees Luca Lorenzini and Boris Meeder have just returned from a volunteer assignment in Uganda with a fresh understanding of how IT can be put to work to aid refugees in developing countries.
The two are part of a volunteer corps of Microsoft employees who are joining field staff from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 20 countries around the world over the coming year. Their task: to help roll out a beta version of Project Profile, a standardised platform for refugee registration data that other Microsoft volunteers helped UNHCR develop several years ago.
Although this phase of Project Profile is just getting under way, the contributions of Microsoft volunteers are already being recognised.
“You will be happy to learn that Luca and Boris jumped right into the activity, learning the application infrastructure and providing our team and our field staff with excellent support,” said Dona Tarpey, UNHCR’s Director for Project Profile. “We are most appreciative and would welcome them back any time.”
And Meeder was quick to praise UNHCR staff in Uganda. “The work that UNHCR does is nothing short of heroic. The hours are long, the conditions are difficult, but the UNHCR field staff is always on the spot serving refugees with dignity and compassion.”
Microsoft announced in July 2004 that it had selected UNHCR as the first beneficiary of the Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Employee Involvement programme. The programme was developed collaboratively by Microsoft’s Community Affairs and Human Resources groups at the company’s US headquarters and Microsoft EMEA headquarters in Paris.
Microsoft’s relationship with UNHCR dates back further, however. Since 1999, Microsoft has been helping the UN agency to take advantage of the latest technologies that will aid UNHCR in its mission to serve the 20 million refugees and internally displaced people worldwide. Established in 1950 by the UN General Assembly, UNHCR has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives in the past five decades.
Microsoft’s support of UNHCR began during the Kosovo crisis, when Microsoft helped provide a portable refugee registration system that enabled UNHCR to track refugees, issue identity papers and reunite lost families. More than 100 Microsoft employees from 12 countries volunteered their time and expertise in response to the Kosovo crisis. UNHCR’s immediate need at the time was to register the 850,000 Kosovo refugees, an exercise that required mobilising the best available technology. In collaboration with other technology companies, Microsoft helped develop and deploy an innovative mobile registration system to aid refugees who had lost or been stripped of their identification documents. Registering the identity of refugees has proven vital in reuniting families, proving property rights and citizenship, and providing access to healthcare and other essential services.
Microsoft took pride in contributing to UNHCR’s success in Kosovo and recognised the rewards of strengthening its partnership with the agency through various volunteer projects. The latest effort entails deploying an overhauled version of all of UNHCR’s refugee registration systems. The new system will enhance UNHCR’s ability to regularly update information on refugee births, deaths, arrivals, departures, special protection needs and changes of status.
Because the ambitious task of deployment is too large for UNHCR to accomplish on its own, Microsoft volunteers are taking part in two- to three-week assignments in places including Guinea, Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Tanzania. The Microsoft employees, who continue to receive a salary from Microsoft during their UNHCR assignments, are primarily performing two types of work: infrastructure support and Microsoft Access database queries and reporting.
Frank Schott, coordinator of Microsoft’s UNHCR programme, noted that demand for these volunteer assignments has been exceptional.
“We had an incredible response, with more than 250 qualified Microsoft employees volunteering for the programme,” Schott says. “Obviously, with fewer than 20 volunteer positions available, we had to make some very tough decisions.”
Inspired by the tremendous response to the call for volunteers on the UNHCR project, Microsoft EMEA is already looking for ways to extend and improve its Employee Involvement programme in the future. The programme is built on the premise that collective action is needed to tackle the large-scale problems that prevent full participation in society for many, such as the lack of equality in access to education, the growing skills and technology divide, extreme poverty and the high rate of adult illiteracy. With its Employee Involvement programme, Microsoft EMEA supports and encourages employees to dedicate their time and expertise to solving such problems through community development.
“The programme provides an opportunity for Microsoft to build relationships further with UNHCR in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as helping Microsoft to become more of a ‘local citizen’ in communities across the region,” said Elena Bongfiglioli, community affairs director at Microsoft EMEA. “Furthermore, there are great individual benefits to be gained from the team-working, collaboration and technical expertise that are required.”
