Using New Technology To Help Refugees

Google Earth and UNHCR are collaborating again in an exciting new Internet program to let people in all parts of the world who are interested in refugee issues, to take a virtual tour in visiting refugee camps around the world, starting in Asia and then move on to another camps in Africa etc. This is the same as travel on the Google Map, for those who regularly use Google map to find their home town and city. On the trip, one can make a stop, linger and move around refugee camps to see how refugees cope with their life in the dry land of the Middle East and Sahara desert, to the foothills and valleys of the Himalaya Mountain, and then continue on to the tropical rain forest of South-East Asia. UNHCR has just launched this new innovative program on June 17. which can be seen now on Google Lat Long blog. The program will be available later at the official website of UNHCR. Another new innovation that I want to mention, is the “VSee”- video-conferencing that UNHCR will use as interactive tool of communication between people interested in refugee issues, officials/workers at refugee camps, and the refugees themselves who are living at various regions. I hope that the dialogue will create a better understanding of life at refugee camps and, as a consequence, gain more support and funds to enable UNHCR to help more than 42 millions refugees who were forced to flee their homes, separated from families because of tribal and religious conflict, war and persecution. UNHCR invites submission of video recordings, text messages and tweets from users around the world to a live feed on Saturday June 20 from 9 a.m to 9 p.m United States Eastern Standard Time (2 p.m to 2 a.m GMT) to commemorate World Refugee Day. The refugees need all the help they can get from all of us. Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that the amounts needed to rescue people are less than what is needed to rescue banks.