JAPAN – Our thoughts this week have been with all of those affected by the devastating and tragic earthquake in Japan, along with its aftermath. The earthquake and the massive tsunami it triggered have caused horrific destruction. There are still no reliable accounts of the number of victims, due to the scale and nature of devastation. But it is clear that huge amounts of people are missing, left homeless or have been affected otherwise.

Thankfully, we can account for all Nokia employees living and travelling in the affected area. We are also in continual contact with our suppliers and partners in the region, obtaining up-to-date information about their safety and well-being.

To help with immediate relief efforts, Nokia has made a significant donation to the Japanese Red Cross. We are also supporting employee-led fundraising efforts, with the company matching dollar-for-dollar any donation our employees make to this very worthy cause.

Why the Red Cross? Nokia’s approach to supporting disaster recovery is to focus first on immediate disaster relief, and then collaborate with local and state governments, civil societies and NGOs to offer mobile technology for development assistance and to help support rebuilding efforts. We have used this approach in a number of tragic natural disasters over the last few years, including the Thailand tsunami in 2004, hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005, Sichuan earthquake in China in 2008, and the Haiti earthquake and Pakistan floods in 2010.

image credit: NASA