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The floods in Pakistan have caused devastation of an unprecedented scale. A huge swath of the country is submerged under water and we are seeing millions of people suffering. The number of people impacted is of a scale not seen before.

The world is watching, learning more, and realizing the scope and enormity of the problems caused by the seemingly ceaseless rains. UN Secretary General Ban KI Moon has described the devastation as something he has never seen before. Many organizations in the relief and development community are bracing for another disaster to unfold due to lack of food, drinking water and safe places for people. There is not yet as high a toll on human life as there was earlier this year in Haiti, but if disease begins to spread rapidly the consequences may be much more severe.

“Tens of thousands of Pakistanis displaced by the floods are now infected by water borne illnesses, like the potentially fatal cholera” – Jim Sciutto of ABC News reported from the flood zone, highlighting the new danger facing the already battered nation.

News agencies are now starting to report out on the disaster that continues to unfold around them. The calls for help are getting louder. In Pakistan, many in the middle class are taking matters in their own hands to deliver relief to people in need wherever they can. Five of our employees in the Microsoft office in Islamabad jumped in to help by collecting food, supplies and quickly raising funds to acquire supplies. Driving a truck they set out for Nowshera, a town one hour northwest of Islamabad, but closed roads and mud turned it into a three-hour trip. About 15,000 people had taken shelter on high ground there, and the employees enlisted help from some of the town's elders to distribute the boxes of supplies. What they saw and experienced was shocking: there was complete and utter devastation; there are hundreds of similar stories where ordinary people – doctors, office workers, and other professionals – are setting out to provide help where no help is coming from elsewhere.

Shoaib Khalil (second from left), marketing lead for Microsoft Pakistan, was one of five colleagues who took employee-donated food, water, and supplies to a flood-ravaged town an hour outside of Islamabad.

The rains continue and flooding has not yet receded. The impact is now being felt beyond the north-south band in the center of the country which is flooded. The country's main oil refinery is flooded, and power plants have been forced to shut down. There is no fuel or electricity in flooded areas, and bigger cities now have a daily six-hour blackout to conserve energy. The international community and all of us must step up now and help. Aid response has been slower than previous incidents as the enormity of the tragedy is just now becoming clearer. At Microsoft, our employees in Pakistan and around the world are stepping up to help out: Microsoft and its employees have donated over $300,000 to relief organizations doing work in Pakistan.

Microsoft has also been helping to raise awareness of the disaster through its online properties such as MSN, Bing, and our corporate citizenship site, but more needs to done by all of us.

The U.S. State Department has announced a Pakistan Fund to which people can donate you can find about the text ‘SWAT’ to 50555” campaign here. Mercy Corps and International Rescue Committee are two organizations that have a long history and strong presence in Pakistan. The Pakistani community in America has also stepped up and is trying to mobilize support.

If you are looking for organizations facilitating aid response, www.pakistaniat.com has a list of organizations that are undertaking relief efforts in Pakistan.

As the suffering of millions continue, a sustained effort is needed by the international community and global citizens are needed to raise public awareness and help rebuild the lives of flood victims, particularly the millions in need of immediate humanitarian aid.

I was recently invited to speak on a panel at an event being hosted by the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Australia.  The event was themed “Advancing Innovative Development and Aid Strategies in the Asia Pacific: Advancing the Millennium Development Goals”. The conference aimed to stimulate greater international interest in the Asia-Pacific, and enhance the quality of debate around how to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). On reviewing the breadth of speakers at the conference I realized I was one of only a handful of people representing the corporate sector. It was to be my role to convince a group of key decision makers from government, civil society, multilateral and country donors of the important role that private organizations will play in order to achieve the MDGs.

As Community Affairs Lead for Asia, I witness firsthand the issues the MDGs are trying to address on an all too regular basis. Asia is home to approximately 56% of the world’s population and according to estimations by Aid Data approximately 23.92% of the world’s aid was distributed in this region, so to say I feel strongly on this topic and the role of the private sector in an understatement.

There is an amazing amount of work being done by technology companies around the globe to address the MDGs and I jump at any opportunity to celebrate progress and raise awareness of what the future may hold. I would argue there are few companies in our position who offer the breadth of programs and are able to align them with all the MDGs directly (you can read an update on our commitment to the MDGs here). As I walk people through Microsoft’s portfolio it is usually my experience that people are relatively unaware of the work we are doing and very supportive when they learn about it.   

This event was also special to me for another reason, I was humbled to be sharing a panel with Professor Peter Singer,  Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University.  I read the work of Professor Singer whilst I was studying, and his views on ethics were some of the driving influences for me to move toward the line of work I am in.

As you gaze through the MDGs it is striking how big a task it will be to even come close to achieving them.  Being at an event with people who are committed to achieving these results is inspirational and leaves me even stronger in my belief that public-private partnerships are imperative to us moving closer to success.

You can find a recap of the Lowry Institute event here.

You can find out more about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals here.

You can find a summary of Microsoft’s commitment and contribution to the Millennium Development Goals here.

I had many truly wonderful experiences in Taiwan, the team there; Hope Ong and Angela Yao; have done an amazing job pioneering the Women Unlimited Potential (UP) program. They have chosen to focus their work on women, an underserved community in Taiwan in terms of training and access to technology. Over the years the program has grown however the success of the initial grants is evident with many centres continuing to use the UP Curriculum and offering courses after the initial Microsoft Grant had finished. This is in part thanks to our dedicated partner Electronic Commerce Business Association (ECBA) and also to the Taiwanese Government that has stepped in after seeing the success of the program with additional funding and support.

On this trip my site visits were in Taiching city. A city famed for its night market, sensational food and a Taiwanese special called stinky tofu (yes for the record I tried it and yes for the record the smell is worse than even I could have imagined). In Taiching I met with members from Taiwan Breast Cancer Association (TBCA).  This centre is one of the mobile class rooms with classes held in a multi-function community center for women and senior activities. The mobile nature of the training means the reach can be much greater as the trainers and computers move from city to city throughout the week.

These brave and enthusiastic ladies shared how learning to use computers was opening up their world connecting them with fellow survivors from around the world and empowering them to learn more themselves. They valued the time with each other and many saw this not only as a way to network but also to allow them to improve their job prospects when they returned to work. There was one lady in particular who was still undergoing chemotherapy yet made the 50 minute drive on her motorcycle once per week to come to the class. To her, learning to use this technology gave her hope and she was determined to make each and every class.

My other stop in Taiching was the Tai Chung Women’s Prison. I found out as I arrived that our local team had gone to a huge amount of effort to make this visit possible. I was to be the first foreign woman allowed inside and it had required sign off from many levels within the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). I was honored and humbled merely at being given the opportunity however nothing prepared me for the impact of meeting face-to-face the female prison trainees.

They told me of their happiness, inspirations and appreciation of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) program and the hard work of our hardware partner ASUS to bring this opportunity to them. I heard some amazing stories about what they had experienced in their lives and how they truly believed these skills would assist them on release. Many were keen to start their own online stores and all that I spoke to really believed that IT skills were going to give them an advantage when they were released.

This training facility is a pioneer project for Microsoft, conducted in collaboration with three government legal control institutions (under the Ministry of Justice ). The aim of these UP classes is offer soon to be released women with the IT skills and e-commerce training to assist them to be able to support themselves after getting out of jail. The course is only offered to a limited number of students at this stage and is often oversubscribed.

Tai Chung Women’s Prison is an institution that focuses on how to set up the women for success. Launching this course required a lot of dedication, firstly they wanted to be able to simulate the way technology works out side of the prison, search engines, auctions site, social networking, however for security reasons there is no internal access available to the women. The team worked to customize the curriculum for the women and to make it not only relevant but also inspiring and they even went to the effort of creating a mini internet experience for the women to improve their learning and give them a greater understanding of how all these tools now work.

These women have left a lasting impression on me. They value what we often take for granted and had a passion and fire for life that technology was igniting in them. I have looked back over the photos I have taken many times and they do not cease to bring a smile to my face – so to the women of Taiwan THANK YOU!

I am just back from Hong Kong where I attended one of our NGO Connection Days. The connection days are held around the world and provide nonprofits with the opportunity to come together, network and find out about how they can use technology to support their organizations. The event in Hong Kong was a great success with around 180 participants who learned about a range of topics from cloud computing to social media. I also met with some of our local nonprofit partners.

In Hong Kong we work with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service to help us improve how nonprofits access technology through our software donation programs and also to provide training and access to technology to underserved communities helping them to improve their economic prospects. In Hong Kong though, as in the case of many of our markets in Asia, there is an ageing population so often for the elderly while paid employment may not be on the cards contributing to the economy through volunteering is of huge importance to the Government.

Enter the delightful Benedict. Benedict was born in mainland China and studied earlier in his life in Macau. Benedict spent more than 30 years as a taxi driver in Hong Kong and after retiring was unsure what to do next but wanted to feel like he was still contributing. Benedict undertook one of our Unlimited Potential training courses through our partner Hans Anderson and was hooked! But the training was not enough, Benedict wanted to help Hans Anderson and Microsoft bring this world of technology to even more people, so now he is one of the star trainers at the Hans Anderson Centre at Chukyuen, a public housing estate in a much underserved community.

Benedict is volunteering his services to allow more and more seniors to learn how technology can keep them contributing to the success of Hong Kong.

At the other end of the age scale I met Ken. Ken is working for Hans Anderson providing training and courses. Ken and some of his colleagues see an opportunity to bring together technology and an environmental message together in a way that is fun and appeals to youth. They have come up with this nifty little speaker that is made from recycled plastic bulbs from vending machines. In their experience the students love making them and are so bust having fun they almost forget they are learning about technology and recycling! They may also have a burgeoning business in a few years as well!