Dear Supporter,

In the hours and days after any disaster, humanitarian organizations like the Canadian Red Cross need answers to help us do our job properly. Answers to questions like: Where were people during the disaster? How many people are affected? What do they need the most? Where are they now?

Thanks to technology, collaboration from around the world, and data crunching, answers are coming more quickly – and that means we’re able to save more lives and help more people in need.

This year, the American Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced a new innovation in the field: a collaboration with Facebook around Disaster Maps that uses aggregated Facebook data to show where communities are located after a disaster, where they are moving, and where they are checking in as ‘safe.’