Microsoft pledges $1.25M in support for Haiti relief aid

Microsoft has confirmed it plans to make an initial commitment of $1.25 million to support the relief efforts in Haiti following a massive 7.0 (on the richter scale) earthquake on January 12.

The software giant is providing support via cash and in-kind contributions and said it will match US based employees donations up to $12,000. It also plans to assist the relief efforts in the following ways:

  • Disaster Response team - Microsoft"s team is currently engaging with humanitarian relief organizations to assess how they can make a difference. The Disaster Response team plans how Microsoft"s company, people and partners can be mobilized during issues such as Earthquakes - through outreach to lead government, inter-government and non-government agencies involved in leading local and global response efforts.
  • Working with impacted customers and partners to help get critical systems up and running.
  • Helping drive awareness and donations for relief efforts through MSN and Bing.
  • The NetHope Emergency Working Group was activated last night to set up the basic telecommunications communications between the relief agencies operating in the affected areas.
  • The NetHope Haiti Emergency Center (a secure Sharepoint application used by all of the NetHope members) is active and serves as a focal point for all reports, events, contact lists and collaboration.
The scale of destruction and death from this traggic incident is still not fully known. Reports suggest as many as 100,000 may have died as a result of the powerful Earthquake on Tuesday. The US government is sending 3,500 soldiers and 2,200 marines to help with relief efforts and many companies worldwide are also offering donations and aid. There are many ways to help, through donations of your time as a volunteer, and through financial contributions if you wish to do so. Both Neowin and Microsoft invite you to consider supporting the relief organizations who are working in Haiti:

American Red Cross: https://www.redcross.org/
Care: https://www.care.org
NetHope: https://www.nethope.org/
MercyCorps: https://www.mercycorps.org/
Save the Children: https://www.savethechildren.org/
Unicef: https://www.unicef.org
World Vision International: https://wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf

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