It is very comforting to know that the company you work for does more than just talk about being a corporate leader and good community citizen. The following is an update on the support and effort that IBM is lending to assist with the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
“The Earthquake in Haiti has presented huge problems, even for those governmental and non governmental entities with the most experience in relief and recovery efforts. The lack of on the ground physical or I/T infrastructure or a stable and capable government on the ground has significantly complicated the relief effort. The situation remains dire with significant effect on human life and safety but things are improving despite the after shock that took place only recently.
IBM has been involved virtually since the moment when the earthquake hit. We have been working with World Vision, a leading global nongovernment organization (NGO), which provides over $2 billion per year in humanitarian aid to 80 developing countries. World Vision has a significant presence in Haiti, consisting of more than 800 paid staff members who are now responding to the recent earthquake. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recognized their position by recently assigning World Vision the responsibility to create the information gathering and sharing infrastructure to enable coordination across the community of humanitarian NGO's who are attempting to collaborate in Haiti. OCHA’s appointment is recognition of World Vision’s leading role in the United Nations Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC).
We at IBM have had a long term relationship with World Vision having collaborated with them after other natural disasters and based on that close working relationship we have agreed to work on three work streams that help them execute their strategy:
First, we will soon deliver a sophisticated vehicle tracking system that will also track the food, water and supplies that are on the vehicles. Based on our discussion over the last day and a half this is clearly a "Smarter Planet" solution and is vital to the relief and recovery effort in Haiti.
Second, we're designing a Humanitarian Data Center that can be installed in about 45 days when the telecommunications and grid infrastructure are stronger.
Third, last week, a Lotus team developed and launched an internal portal for the UN Field Support Services, the agency that manages all UN missions around the world, including the one destroyed in the Haiti earthquake.
And, while the company response, as is our policy, has been to assist with high impact donations of integrated software, services and technology, the IBM employee community has responded with incredible generosity, making significant cash contributions through the special payroll deduction program we established within 24 hours of the earthquake.
Of course, we are also continuing discussions with the Red Cross, various UN Agencies and the ClintonBush Haiti Fund on other potential initiatives where we can leverage our skills and abilities successfully.”
Please click here if you would like to make a donation.
The IBM Canada Recruiting Team
