We have all witnessed how a natural disaster can devastate a country and how paralyzing it has been to the beautiful people and country of Haiti. However, we have also witnessed the agility and compassion of aid workers from around the world, as well as the philanthropy of everyday world citizens who have already given to the relief efforts.
Technology has played an important role in enabling people to donate to the disaster relief efforts more quickly than ever before whether that’s online or mobile texting For example by just texting “Haiti” to 90999 a $10 donation can be added to your phone bill to contribute to the work of the American Red Cross.
We here at Bing and MSN have been working to help with these efforts in a number of ways. One of the most important things we can do is to encourage people to help raise funding to support the relief and rebuilding efforts. We are very excited to be one of the many partners of MTV and George Clooney’s international telethon, “Hope for Haiti Now.”
MSN and Bing will be webcasting live footage from the event on January 22, 2010 starting at 8:00 p.m. ET, 4:00p.m. PT and 7 p.m. CT, the event will be broadcasted on MTV as well as many other networks. Tune in to catch discussions and music from over 100 of the most well-known names in music, movies and television.
Ways to donate:
Phone: 877-99-HAITI
Text: Text “GIVE” to 50555
Mail: Hope for Haiti Now Fund
Entertainment Industry Foundation
1201 West 5th Street, Suite T-700
Los Angeles, CA 90017
We can all make a difference to the Haiti relief efforts by tuning in and donating on Friday to “Hope for Haiti Now” as well as purchasing one of the many musical performances that will be available online starting Saturday, January 23. We hope that together we can bring some “Hope” to the many people in need in Haiti.
Kristin Meldahl – Bing
Other Microsoft efforts:
Microsoft Community Involvement
Microsoft is making an initial commitment of $1.25 million, which includes cash and in-kind contributions. In addition, Microsoft is matching U.S. employee donations (up to $12K). Already, 2,200 employees have contributed over $410K to 120 nonprofits working in Haiti.
To help people better understand the effects of the tragedy, we created an application in our Bing Maps app gallery with real time tweets overlaid our up to date imagery from Haiti.
You can view a photosynth of the video footage of the earthquake damage in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Courtesy of NBC.
Haitian Creole support in Bing Translator and other Microsoft Translator powered services.