German development worker Caroline Siebald and her boyfriend Charles Gertler, an American glaciologist, were on a rafting trip in Nepal when the earthquake struck and initially panicked about how to let their families know they were safe.
After about 30 attempts, Gertler, 25, managed to get a phone call through to his mother in Massachusetts in the United States, and she registered them as safe on Facebook's "Safety Check". Within minutes, their friends and families saw the news.
"I had messages from my best friends in kindergarten saying 'Oh my God, I'm so glad you're alive'", Siebald, 22, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
From migrant Nepali domestic workers in India to IT professionals in Brazil, people across the globe have taken to social media sites such as Facebook and Google to look for missing relatives and pass on news of survival in Nepal.
In India, which has the highest population of Nepali migrants in the world, many have been frantically trying to phone home, horrified as they watch television pictures showing bodies being pulled out of the rumble of collapsed buildings.
"I don't know anything about my son who is in a village with my parents far from Kathmandu. I am calling on the phone all the time, but I can't get through. I can't eat, sleep or work," said Usha Tamang, a nanny of Nepali nationality working in Delhi.
Elsewhere in the world, others are searching for relatives and friends who were visiting the Himalayan nation during its peak tourism season.
An estimated 300,000 foreign tourists were in the country, several hundred of whom were on Mount Everest, when Saturday's 7.9 magnitude quake struck, killing more than 3,700 people.
TRACING THE MISSING
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was one of the first agencies to launch an online platform to trace the thousands of people who are missing.
The family tracing service publishes lists of names and information on people who are safe and well, hospital patients, people who are looking for relatives, sought persons or those who are dead.
Individuals can access these lists directly on the webpage to look for the names of their family members or register themselves as safe or in danger.
Facebook has also launched its Safety Check tool https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/nepalearthquake for Nepal, drawing praise from Facebook members.
"It's a simple way to let family and friends know you're okay. If you're in one of the areas affected by the earthquake, you'll get a notification asking if you're safe, and whether you want to check on any of your friends," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted.
"When disasters happen, people need to know their loved ones are safe. It's moments like this that being able to connect really matters."
An IT professional in Brazil was one of many who said that the initiative had helped her trace her family.
"My father and friends are in the area and one of the first contact points we had to get some news was Facebook. This media is not always about likes and fun," the woman wrote in response to Zuckerberg's post.
"When you or someone in your family is in danger, you'll try ANY kind of contact and I'm glad Facebook helped me today. Connection is what matters."
Another application, the Google Person Finder https://google.org/personfinder/2015-nepal-earthquake/, first launched after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, uses SMS to allow anyone to search or update information on missing people.
On Saturday Jacqueline Brown registered Angus Brown, 46, from London, as safe. "Angus has emailed, he is in Lumboche with Martin. Both are fine, warm and have food," she said. The service is currently tracking about 5,800 people.
Telecommunications firms and tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft and T-Mobile, joined the relief effort by either waving call and text fees, facilitating donations or making donations outright.
Apple has launched a partnership with the American Red Cross, asking iTunes users to donate money through its iTunes Store for the relief efforts. Apple says that 100 percent of the donations will be made to the American Red Cross in its ongoing efforts to help survivors. Twitter is also helping to raise funds through not-for-profit organizations, including UNICEF.
Google has launched its Person Finder to help people determine whether those who may have been in the area of the earthquake are safe. Person Finder users can say whether they're "looking for someone" or "have information about someone." The service is designed for victims or people who know victims to update their family and friends on their current status. For instance, the service can provide peace-of-mind to family members, telling them that a victim is safe and sound. Google has also reduced its international calls charge to Nepal via its phone service Google Voice to one cent per minute. The company previously charged 19 cents per minute to call Nepal.
Google engineer Dan Fredinburg, who worked in the company's Project X division, was among at least 17 climbers killed when an avalanche set off by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake rolled into the climbers' base camp on Mount Everest. His death was confirmed by Google, which indicated that three other Google employees were on the mountain with Fredinburg at the time of the avalanche. "He has passed away," Lawrence You, Google's director of privacy, wrote in a blog post. "The other three Googlers with him are safe, and we are working to get them home quickly."
Soon after the Nepal earthquake hit, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg activated his company's Safety Check feature, allowing those who may have been in the area to let friends and family know they're fine. "When disasters happen, people need to know their loved ones are safe," Zuckerberg wrote on Saturday. "It's moments like this that being able to connect really matters. My thoughts are with everyone who's been caught up in this tragedy."
Telecommunications companies are also helping out. Time Warner, Verizon and AT&T have all offered their customers free calls to Nepal. Time Warner is additionally offering free calls to India and China through May 25; and Verizon and AT&T are offering free texting.
The technology companies' efforts could prove integral to helping people in Nepal in the wake of Saturday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake. The earthquake, the biggest to hit Nepal in 81 years, has so far left more than 3,700 people dead and is feared to have killed many more.
The catastrophe has mobilized humanitarian aid from around the world and several prominent organizations, including the American Red Cross, are on the scene to help those in need. The exact extent of the damage and ultimate impact on the Himalayan nation is still being evaluated, but the earthquake was strong enough to severely damage Katmandu and caused an avalanche on Mount Everest.
Nepal is seeking help in every way. Spokespeople for the country's government have said to reporters on the scene that the country lacks "the proper facilities" to properly address such a major natural disaster.
The technology industry's response is similar to how it responded following Japan's own disaster in 2011 following a major earthquake and tsunami. Nearly all of the major companies in the industry provided relief efforts to help victims.
Despite their best efforts, technology companies can only do so much to connect with people in Nepal. The country is one of the poorest in the world and just a third of its population of 30 million people is actually online. According to reports, the earthquake has taken down critical infrastructure, including Internet access, which could make efforts for victims to communicate even more difficult.
Tuesday 28 April 2015
http://news.yahoo.com/google-facebook-join-red-cross-thousands-missing-nepal-164119287.html
http://www.cnet.com/news/tech-companies-rally-behind-nepal-earthquake-survivors/#ftag=YHF65cbda0
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