DB MOBIL MARCH 2010 :At last, Help is more efficient

To view the original interview in German with DB Mobility Networks Logistics, click here

The US IT-manager, Shari Temple, Managing Director of the Aidmatrix Foundation in Europe, supports humanitarian aid efforts in crisis areas. Her customized software is used by relief organizations around the world.

In her small office in the Bavarian village of Marzling Shari Temple types and skypes usually at the same time. It has to do with floods, famine, and for the past several weeks, the earthquake in Haiti. Sometimes it’s Mozambique on the line, or South Africa, or the British aid organization World Vision, or EADRCC, the civil disaster arm of NATO. Daily business for this American mathematician is delivering logistics to support disaster relief efforts-humanitarian logistics. Shari Temple is the Managing Director of the Aidmatrix Foundation in Europe. The American nonprofit aims to make relief delivery more efficient. Their mission states: The Right Aid to the Right People at the Right Time™. Reports of deliveries of wrong aid rarely appear in the media. Ski jackets delivered to Sri Lanka or, after the flooding in Atlanta, how a warehouse had to be built to house the mountains of teddy bears donated by well meaning citizens. “Tons of unneeded donations are shipped around the globe,” says the Supply Chain Management expert.

The software which Ms. Temple helped to customize for humanitarian aid is a network platform which affords a real time overview of supply, demand, and location of donations. Various modules which can be used, for example, for donations, volunteers, transportation logistics or warehousing, are easy to understand and use. It only requires an internet connection.

The US Government Agency for International Development uses Aidmatrix software to coordinate their relief efforts. The civilian disaster relief arm of NATO (EADRCC) uses Aidmatrix for relief operations in Albania and Romania, among others.

From her desk in Marzling Shari Temple is responsible for operations in the Middle East and Africa, in addition to Europe. She works not only as Managing Director and Product Manager, but also drives fundraising for the Foundation in order to make the technology affordable to all relief organizations, large or small.

German Interview: Barbara Link for db mobil
English: Elena Mendoza

Chilean Earthquake Update

Over the weekend the massive earthquake in Chile displaced hundreds of thousands of Chileans. It also sent tsunami warnings across the Pacific Ocean. Remarkably, the tsunami warnings outside of Chile were called off with little damage.

Chile has now requested aid from the international community specifically for medical relief and setting up temporary hospitals to treat the injured. We are working with our partnering relief organizations to coordinate the in-kind product needs as the situation unfolds. To view these needs as they are made available, visit www.aidmatrix.org/Chile