Google map comes in handy for UN relief works

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: Google technology first envisaged as a video game backdrop has been adapted to raise awareness -- and potentially financial support -- for the plight of refugees and vulnerable people once far from the public eye.

The search engine's Google Earth platform, a mapping service that allows users to move through three-dimensional satellite images of city streets and countryside, now offers a close-up view of U.N. refugee camps and aid projects.

Rebecca Moore, head of Earth Outreach for Google, said the browsable, high-definition pictures of humanitarian crisis zones stood to captivate a mass audience that may not otherwise see them.

Many of the 350 million people who have downloaded Google Earth use it to scan for holiday destinations or to see what other corners of the world look like from above. The sharp satellite images are updated about every month, though in some places they are older and in others no public shots exist.

Moore told a packed audience of aid experts at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) headquarters that they could add video interviews of refugees, photographs of displacement crises and educational text to the satellite backdrop to educate even casual users about unfolding crises.

"Use Google Earth to tell your story," she urged.

While zooming through images of refugee camps in Chad, Iraq and Colombia -- showing various levels of detail, from broad topography to shots of tents -- she said developers first made the tool as a backdrop of "the ultimate video game."

"We realized that Google Earth had the potential to be a much more significant and meaningful tool," she said.

Crises



Former Irish President Mary Robinson, who also served as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the technology could help the public better understand displacement crises.

"We need all the communications possible to change the dynamic, to make this something very personal," she told the UNHCR audience by videolink.

Geneva is home to the U.N.'s European headquarters, U.N. agencies such as the World Health Organization, international health financiers including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and major humanitarian aid providers including the Red Cross.

All are engaged in continuous and active fundraising efforts to draw in money for their operations.

Karl Steinacker, head of the UNHCR's field information and coordination support section, said the U.N. agency was seeking to "systematically map" all its approximately 150 refugee camps.

"This is the first time we are using these maps for public information," he said, noting UNHCR officials could also use the data to ensure that camps are well-designed and working well.

The images -- which are not live transmissions -- also offer a bird's eye view of troublesome areas, such as those where rapes are occurring or where people are falling ill from malaria, Steinacker said.

Some U.N. experts said the satellite images could help aid providers see where communities of displaced people have moved to, and where aid ought to be dispatched to. But others said the technology appeared to have less value as a tool for workers in the field who lack access to high-speed computers and Internet.