YOLANDA PEOPLE FINDER

On the 8th day of November, year 2013, people are living their lives peacefully until a massive tragedy shook their innocent lives.

Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Typhoon Yolanda, was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded in the world history. It killed a total number of 6,300 people in the Philippines.

The vast use of ICT had a great impact in terms of informing others on what is happening during this calamity. The typhoon is talked about on social networking sites and the storm became a trend world wide, dubbing that Typhoon Yolanda is one of the strongest typhoons in world history.

Aside from the social media, Google offered a help to the Filipino people by allowing them to use their web application called Google Person Finder.

Google Person Finder is an open source web application that provides a message board for survivors, family, and loved ones affected by a natural disaster to post and search for information about each other’s status and updates. It was first created by Google engineers in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Through online platforms, people posted calls for help, survivors let the world know they were safe, and photos and videos were posted to describe the situation on the ground, and help plan relief efforts. Maybe you even donated money online to one of the many emergency relief funds set up in the wake of the disaster. The role of social media in the Haiyan response highlighted the role of information and communications technology (ICT), communication, and civic participation in promoting social change indeed, the world has become hyper-connected.

It helps to spread the information about the  current situation of the victims.

v  It  helps to locate where the  victims are.

v  It helps to connect with people, and to inform them about important issues affecting their lives and their communities.

v  It helps to know what are the different needs of the yolanda victims.

This proved that ICT has an important role not only during typhoon Yolanda but also in other calamities that will happen, happening and already happened around the world.

''God gives his Hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. And we really are the Strongest nation! Torn and Broken but still standing.''