IBM commits P40-million disaster assistance

MANILA, Philippines - IBM has committed P40 million ($860,000) worth of technology, services and expertise as part of its contribution to the country’s disaster rehabilitation and preparedness efforts.

The company immediately reached out to government agencies to provide recovery and relief support in the aftermath of typhoon “Ondoy.”

“We appreciate IBM’s support in the recent flood crisis and its commitment to long-term rehabilitation efforts. The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) deployed the ERN Kit to the Ever-Gotesco Advance Command Post as back-up communications,” said OCD administrator and NDCC executive officer Glenn Rabonza.

“We will continue to work with IBM for our future disaster management to see how we can better leverage Sahana to hasten recovery efforts,” he added.

IBM is strengthening its partnership and collaboration with the NDCC toward the effective implementation of its Emergency Response Network (ERN)-Sahana Go Kit.

Sahana is an integrated set of free and open source Web-based applications that provide solutions to large-scale humanitarian problems in the aftermath of a disaster — from finding missing people, managing aid, managing volunteers, and tracking camps effectively among government groups, the civil society (NGOs) and the victims themselves.

The ERN is an emergency/disaster system designed to yield a core communications infrastructure for restoration of basic local voice and data communications across a small, defined area.

IBM and the NDCC will explore ways to customize Sahana. IBM is prepared to provide its technology to enhance the NDCC’s existing IT infrastructure and complement it with necessary skills and services that will address the needs identified by the NDCC and OCD for the customization, modification and deployment of Sahana.

The coverage of the assistance may include the provision of IBM servers and storage, project management services, a review of the NDCC’s IT network infrastructure, provision of software developers to customize Sahana, ERN-related services and volunteers from the IBM On Demand Community and Corporate Service Corps (CSC).

The IBM CSC is the company’s version of the Peace Corps. Now in its second year, the CSC program sends teams of eight to 10 top IBM employees from around the world to key emerging markets.

Since July 2008, IBM has deployed seven CSC teams to the Philippines to support a broad range of small and medium enterprises, non-government organizations and government agencies in five different locations. 

In the near term, IBM has plans to deploy a CSC volunteer who is an IBM Certified Senior Project Manager who has managed various types of Linux projects for the past six years.

In 2010, IBM’s commitment increases with the deployment of two additional CSC teams to Metro Manila to assist the NDCC, its member-agencies and other NGOs in the rehabilitation of local communities.

IBM is also heeding the call of the Department of Education for its private sector partners to extend assistance to public schools and work with them to rebuild what was damaged by the typhoons.

IBM will adopt at least 40 affected schools in the National Capital Region and northern Luzon by donating computers, software and training through KidSmart, the company’s comprehensive learning program designed to support children from preschool up to Grade 3.