In what is believed to be the largest-ever corporate grant devoted to the advocacy, intervention and rescue of people being held, forced to work or provide sex against their will, Google said it chose organizations with proven records in combating slavery.

"Many people are surprised to learn there are more people trapped in slavery today than any time in history," said Jacquelline Fuller, director of charitable giving and advocacy for Google. "The good news is that there are solutions."

The Washington-based International Justice Mission, a human rights organization that works globally to rescue victims of slavery and sexual exploitation, was chosen by Google to lead the efforts.

It will partner with Polaris Project and Slavery Footprint and a handful of smaller organizations for the multi-year effort to rescue the enslaved, push for better infrastructure and resources for anti-slavery enforcement agencies overseas, as well as raise awareness here in the United States and help countries draft anti-slavery legislation.

"Each year we focus some of our annual giving on meeting direct human need," Fuller said. "Google chose to spotlight the issue of slavery this year because there is nothing more fundamental than freedom."

Gary A. Haugen, president of the International Justice Mission, said the coalition would focus on three initiatives: A $3.5 million intervention project to fight forced labor in India; a $4.5 million advocacy campaign in India to educate and protect the vulnerable; and a $1.8 million plan to mobilize Americans on behalf of the millions currently at risk of slavery or waiting for rescue around the world.

The remaining $1.7 million will go to several smaller organizations working to combat slavery.

"It's hard for most Americans to believe that slavery and human trafficking are still massive problems in our world," said Haugen. "Google's support now makes it possible for IJM to join forces with two other leading organizations so we can bring to bear our unique strengths in a united front."

Those leading the U.S. efforts will meet in Washington on Wednesday to kick off the joint initiative. The project will focus on improved legislation to protect vulnerable children and adults in the United States, as well as a push for more accountability and transparency in the U.S. supply chain by retailers and manufacturers to make sure their products are "slave-free."

The trafficking of women for the sex trade is common in big American cities. Some illegal immigrants find themselves forced to work in sweatshops, in private homes as domestic servants or on farms without pay under the threat of deportation.

The new effort will launch new initiatives that ordinary Americans can take to help abolish modern-day slavery, such as understanding how their own clothing or smartphones might contain fabrics or components manufactured by forced labor.

"Whether it's by calling the national human trafficking hotline, sending a letter to their senator, or using online advocacy tools, millions of Americans will be able to use their voices to ensure that ending this problem becomes a top priority," said Bradley Myles, executive director of Polaris Project.

Google.org — the philanthropy arm of the Silicon Valley firm — announced the anti-slavery effort as part of its $40 million in end-of-year giving that brings its charitable donations to more than $100 million in 2011. The grants will also support science, technology, engineering and math education; girls' education in the developing world; and the use of technology for social good.

Justin Dillon, the founder of Slavery Footprint, said the Google grant would allow the movement to move from "anecdote and emotion," to tangible action that could make a dent in history.

"Having a company like Google recognize the value of our work marks a major turning point for the anti-slavery movement," said Dillon, whose nonprofit gives consumers some tools to determine whether slaves were used in the making of their goods and teaches them to use social media to sound off about slavery and engage with corporations about their supply chains.

via:mashable

Despite some tentatively good news surrounding Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the country is still reeling from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit its shores just two weeks ago.

There has been a huge outpouring of support for Japan as it weathers the aftershocks and aftereffects of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Social media has been no slouch with nearly countless campaigns aimed at donating money, supplies or lending support in any way possible.

Mashable brought you seven other ways to help, and we’re back with even more ways that you can assist the on-going relief efforts. Some are as lighthearted as a T-shirt from Snoop Dogg while others support on-the-ground rescue workers. Let us know how you’re helping.

How You Can Help

#Hands4Japan on Crowdrise

Two Japanese-born venture capitalist brothers started a campaign on Crowdrise in support of the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter. They’ve offered to match donations until the campaign reaches its total goal of $1 million. In just four days, the brothers and their family raised more than $225,000 (with matching donations), at time of writing that number is nearly $325,000. The family said most of those donations were for amounts of less than $50.

Twestival

Twesitval is an international charity event that uses social media to help organize local meet-ups around the world. This year’s Twestival had several meet-ups planned for Japan but those had to be canceled because of the need for help following the earthquake and tsunami.

Instead, Twestival opened a special channel of its site where people can donate to Save the Children’s Japan Initiative.

PayPal

The popular online payment site has offered to credit transactional fees incurred from March 11 to April 10 to any registered charity in the U.S. or Canada raising funds to aid Japan relief. (For the U.S., any 501(c)(3), and for Canada, any under the Canada Revenue Agency). PayPal members can also donate directly here (U.S.) orhere (Canada).

Clothing & Shopping

Threadless, the online clothing vendor jumped into the effort by running a short, crowdsourced contest to come up with a T-shirt design that could be sold to help Japan. The winner, based on the theme “sunrise,” is available for $20. All of the net proceeds from the sale will be donated to the American Red Cross‘ Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund. The shirt is part of Threadless Causes, an initiative to help non-profits and causes through its sales.

Snoop Dogg and Neff Headwear have teamed up to help Japan by creating a T-shirt in which all profits will be donated to Operation U.S.A.. The pair are hoping to raise $50,000 in funds in one week.

Shop for Japan is a one-day global shopping event happening Saturday, March 26. Businesses can sign up at the site to pledge a percent of their revenue from that day to go toward charity. The site also has a list and map of participating stores.

#TweetDrive

This social good community has organized #TweetDrive4Japan.

The campaign is an international series of tweets-ups from March 29 to 31 where 100% of ticket sales from each event will go to the Save the Children‘s emergency Japan relief fund.

Text-to-Donate

Ever since Haiti was hit by an earthquake, text-to-donate has been a huge trend — and a huge help — in times of need. The Japan crisis has spawned several options:

• MobileCause has shortcodes for the Salvation Army (text “JAPAN” to “80888 for a $10 donation), the International Medical Corps (text “MED” to “80888″ for a $10 donation), and ADRA Relief (text “SUPPORT” to “85944″ for a $10 donation).
• Mobile Giving Foundation promises a 100% pass-through of all funds for shortcodes to Save the Children Federation (text “JAPAN” or “TSUNAMI” to 20222 to donate $10), World Vision (text “4JAPAN” or “4TSUNAMI” to 20222 to donate $10), the Mercy Corps (text “MERCY” to 25383 to donate $10), the Canadian Red Cross (text “ASIA” or “ASIE“ to 30333 to donate $5), and Canadian Salvation Army (text “QUAKE” to 45678 to donate $10).
• Obopay lets consumers make larger donations (in the hundreds) that, according to Obopay, reach organizations faster than carrier-based text-to-donate plans. Donors can text “Japan” to “48510″ where they’re taken to a mobile payment site complete with electronic tax receipt.

JiWire

JiWire has offered it’s location-based ad network of Wi-Fi hotspots and mobile apps by running a campaign in support for the Red Cross. The ads will let users know about nearby Red Cross locations as well as options to donate through text.

It’s a nice example of an ad platform maximizing its reach and geo-location possibilities to serve a good cause.

Tumblr

Tumblr recently announced the addition of Japanese as the newest language option for the blogging network. Users will be able to change their language setting on the preferences page, opening new opportunities for outreach for native-speakers and supporters abroad. Users can also keep up with news from Japan on Tumblr’s #Japan tag page or donate to the Red Cross from the dashboard. Donating will unlock a Limited Edition Japanese Tumblr Logo and the company will match donations up to $15,000.

The last time Tumblr opened special features was its all-black background to promote awareness and raise funds following the Gulf oil leak.

Next Steps

Before donating to any sites or organizations, make sure you do a little bit of homework. It’s important to know about any transaction fees and to double check that the site will actually donate to the (registered) charity as promised. Disasters are unfortunately prime targets for scammers who try and play off the public’s genuine sympathy and desire to help. Organizations like the Red Cross are generally above-board and provide upfront information on how your money is being spent. It’s important to help in times of crisis, but it’s also important to make sure your support isn’t being misused.

There are definitely other ways to help the relief efforts outside of the options above. Please share in the comments your hashtags, newsfeeds, non-profits, campaigns or any other ways to help Japan.

via:mashable

If you run your own site — and we know lots of you do — you can use your pageviews and influence to help Japanese people struggling to recover from yesterday’s devastating natural disasters. All you need is a couple lines of code from the Hello Bar.

We showed off the Hello Bar a while ago; it’s a slender bar that floats at the top of your website, giving visitors a brief message and a link.

Best of all, you only have to insert the code snippet on your site once. From a convenient web dashboard, you can customize the bar with your colors and text. You can also tweak the behaviors of the bar and easily turn it on or off from the dashboard. All of this makes it incredibly easy to solicit donations for Japan now, then turn the bar off or change the message and link later, if you so desire.

For example, you might set your Hello Bar to read something like, “Japan has been hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Click here to make a Red Cross donation.” Then later, when Japan is well on its way to recovery, you can change the bar to contain a message about your favorite charity instead, or simply switch the bar off for the time being.

You can set the bar to appear for a brief interval at the beginning of a website visit and hide itself afterward. If you run multiple websites, you can run multiple Hello Bars, again controlling them all from the same dashboard.

The Hello Bar comes from UK design shop digital-telepathy. If you haven’t used Hello Bar before, you’ll need a new account; just sign up with the invite code “helpjapan.”

And if you don’t feel like signing up for a new app, you can just use this code anywhere in the <body> tag of your site to display a standard donation request:

That code can be used on a Tumblr, WordPress or Blogger blog, too; here are some detailed instructions.

As for which links to use, that’s largely up to you. Here are a few reputable organizations that are collecting funds and working with organizations in Japan to meet the needs of Japanese people:

• The American Red Cross
• Americares
• Global Giving
• Doctors Without Borders
• Mercy Corps

Coca-Cola is in the process of launching three fruit-based drinks this summer. The company is expected to launch two products under the Minute Maid brand, and a mango shake in the dairy segment under the Maaza brand by June this year.

“Coca-Cola India is currently test marketing Minute Maid Apple Juice and Minute Maid Mixed Fruit juice in Kolkata. Based on the response, we will take a call to roll it out in other parts of the country,” confirmed a Coca-Cola India spokesperson in response to an email. The spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the company’s entry in the dairy segment with a mango shake under the Maaza brand.

Coca-Cola is not present in the dairy segment elsewhere in the world. India would be its first test-ground for the segment when it launches the mango shake. Coke is the beverage sponsor of the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Analysts say it would leverage these launches during the Games to capture consumers’ mindshare.

“Getting into allied products (mango shake) is a well-thought move since it will require only re-constituting the existing product (the pulp left from Maaza formation can be re-processed into shake). There is more synergy into it,” said an analyst. The only challenge would be a better chilled supply chain to reduce spoilage, as dairy products are more temperature-sensitive than soft drinks and have shorter shelf life.

Cola companies, note analysts, are launching fruit-based drinks as people have become more health conscious. Even FMCG companies are entering the juice segment. In the past, Pepsi had launched Tropicana and Nimbooz. Dabur is bullish on its Real range. Parle Agro also launched LMN (lemon drink). Wipro Consumer recently launched few fruit variants of Glucovita (glucose concentrate) and it wouldn’t be surprising if Wipro moves from juice concentrate to ready-to-drink juice soon.

Anand Ramanathan, sector analyst from KPMG, reasons: “Margins are better in juice-based drinks than carbonated drinks, as juice is a premium segment while carbonated drinks is a mass segment. Juice will be the future growth driver for cola companies.”

Carbonated drinks is a Rs 14,720-crore market in India, while juice is a Rs 2,670-crore market. But the juice segment is growing faster than carbonated, according to analysts.

Coca-Cola, according to a source close to the development, is also considering a Guava variant and has a plan to expand Minute Maid into a full juice range in the coming two years.

If you’re looking to pitch in to the relief effort for Chile after this morning’s massive earthquake, we’ve gathered some of the web’s best channels for humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts.

Text Your Support

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The Mobile Giving Foundation has launched a text messaging campaign for micro donations, and the four major U.S. mobile carriers, Verizon, At&T, Sprint, and T-mobile, have waived text messaging fees for donations.

To text your support:

1. Text the word “CHILE” to 25383 to donate $10 on behalf of the Habitat for Humanity

2. Text the word “CHILE” to 20222 to donate $10 on behalf of World Vision

3. Text the word “CHILE” to 52000 to donate $10 on behalf of the Salvation Army

4. Text the word “CHILE” to 90999 to donate $10 on behalf of the American Red Cross

Direct Donations Online

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If you want to donate a larger amount directly to a non-profit of choice, consider these organizations that have active relief efforts underway.

1. American Red Cross – the American Red Cross International Response Fund helps victims of crises such as the Chile and Haiti earthquakes. If you wish to designate your funds to a specific crisis, you’ll need to mail in your donation.

2. Americares – funds go exclusively to the Chilean earthquake (and tsunami relief, should further tragedies occur)

3. Google Crisis Response, with channels benefiting UNICEF and DirectRelief International
– use your Google Checkout account to donate instantly to these charities

4. World Vision Disaster Response Fund - your money goes towards relief efforts for global disasters worldwide (not Chile specifically)

5.ReliefWeb is another great resource with lots of ways to help disaster sticken countries.

Via:Mashable

For those without access to the relevant channels, video streaming site Ustream is currently live streaming coverage of both the Chile earthquake aftermath and tsunami warnings for Hawaii and Pacific regions.

Coverage comes courtesy of local news channels.

We’ve embedded the channels below, and welcome your tips for following the earthquake and tsunami news elsewhere on the web. 

Tsunami Warning for Hawaii Live Coverage

Hawaii Tsunami Warnings – CBS Live

Live earthquake coverage from Chile

A major earthquake of magnitude-8.8 struck Chile early Saturday, causing extensive damage.

As a result, a tsunami warning has been issued for Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga, with waves expected to reach Hawaii at 11:19 a.m. local time (4:19 p.m. EST). A tsunami advisory has been issued for California, while tsunami warnings have been issued for 53 countries in total, including Australia   and New Zealand.

Currently tracking the coverage online with a combination of live streams from local TV stations, official information from the NOAA and updates from Twitter and real-time search.

1. Live streaming video (Ustream) – Ustream is helpfully providing TV coverage from local channels in Chile and Hawaii.

2. Twitter hashtag #tsunami – Twitter users are tagging updates with #tsunami, and Twitter search is proving extremely useful for news tracking. Remember that Twitter’s advanced search lets you find updates posted from specific places – Chile or Hawaii, for instance.

3. Google Real-time search “Tsunami warning” – Google’s real-time search combines news results with postings from Twitter, blogs and other real-time sources. “Tsunami warning” delivers relevant results, but obviously tweak your search terms if you’re looking for something more specific.

4. NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center – The PTWC provides a collection of resources for those tracking the tsunami, including maps of those areas where tsunami warnings and advisories have been issued.

5. NOAA’s Tsunami.gov – Tsunami.gov is the NOAA’s official tsunami site, providing links to their local warning centers. However, we’re getting limited uptime today, presumably due to heavy traffic. Using the other sources above may keep this site available to those who most need it.

With their own building unsafe and the neighboring field where they slept the night of the earthquake getting more crowded, the children of Angel House spent five nights sleeping on the concrete under a tin roof at the nearby Quisqueya Christian School.

When the earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12, Abbey McArthur, 26, was half-way through her year-long commitment to teach kids at the Angel House orphanage in Port-au-Prince. "It felt like God had picked up the earth and was just shaking it back and forth," the Indiana native said. She was less than a mile away, exercising at another school when it happened. In the nightmarish aftermath of those destructive 15 seconds, as she headed back to look for her students, as she crawled over rubble and heard the locals mourning in the streets, the last thing she probably could have imagined was that NASCAR would have something to do with rescuing her and her wards.

But that was just what was about to happen in North Carolina where Rick Hendrick lives. Hendrick's NASCAR team has won the last four Sprint Cup titles and nine overall. So he's used to doing things fast. On the morning after the earthquake, Hendrick, the owner of one of the largest car dealerships in the country, decided to act quickly. He instructed team general manager Marshall Carlson and aviation director David Dudley to see what they could do to help. He had personal reasons for it all. "You see people in agony and pain and hurting in a disaster and it doesn't take me long to flash back to the night that my family was on the side of a mountain in Virginia and we couldn't get to them," he says, recalling the plane crash that took the lives of his son, his brother, two nieces and six others in 2004. "These people [in Haiti] needed help right now." 

Searching online, they came across Missionary Flights International (MFI), a Ft. Pierce, Florida based organization which has been flying in support of missionary efforts in the Caribbean, predominantly to Haiti and the Dominican Republic since 1964. MFI's four plane fleet includes three refurbished DC-3s originally built 65 years ago and used mostly for cargo. Hendrick offered up aircraft of his own: two Saab 2000 turboprops, able to accommodate 45 passengers each. Ten pilots and crew volunteered to go. (He had thrown his planes into disaster relief before, including some 1,100 hours of support after Hurricane Katrina.) 

Back in Haiti, the evening before, McArthur was clambering over the rubble of a large building that had collapsed into the street at the corner of 91 Delmas, where she had to turn to get to the orphanage. She wondered about the family that lived on the first floor and the vendors who were always there at that time of the day. What had happened to them? She recalled several discussions she had with different people over the previous months about how Haiti was due for a significant earthquake and how the infrastructure would crumple if that happened. But it was the 11 children she taught and 15 younger ones at the orphanage that were paramount in her thoughts.

And so she was relieved when she finally got to Angel House. The main building, where the children had been during the quake had survived. Francois Jean Louis, a translator for the orphanage told her the kids, who ranged six months to eight years old, were all safe and had been relocated to a neighbor's field. She was surprised at how calm they were and both thankful and amazed that none were injured despite being among many things that had fallen inside the building. But even though the main orphanage building had not fallen, it was no longer safe for them to remain in it. Like most of the city, MacArthur and the children would spend the night outside. The next day they would move to the protection of the nearby Quisqueya Christian School for five nights, sleeping on a concrete floor under a tin roof. 

All the kids from Angel House were at one point or another of the long process of being adopted by parents in the U.S. and Canada. But paperwork and seemingly endless bureaucracy had kept them in Haiti. Among those waiting for to adopt were Cara Boone and her husband Kevin of Titusville, Florida. The couple were almost three years into the process of adopting two children from Angel House, Rebecca, 3, and Kervens, 4. Upon hearing about the quake, Cara and Shannon Hoffmann, a staff member of Three Angels Children's Relief, the parent organization which also operates a health clinic and an elementary school in Port-au-Prince, started working the phones to fasttrack the process. They called every politician or agency that they thought could help. Eventually, they were in contact with Whitney Reitz at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) which operates out of the Department of Homeland Security. "From the moment the disaster happened, this entire office was completely seized with putting in place a plan to try to get something done," says Reitz. 

Meanwhile, Cara's husband Kevin, who is a pastor at the First Christian Church in Titusville, had been in touch with folks he knew at MFI — which had at its disposal the planes of Rick Hendrick. The first Hendrick Motorsports plane had landed in Ft. Pierce on Friday, January 16 and ferried a load of doctors and medical personnel to Port-au-Prince the next day. Among its passengers on that trip were Three Angels co-founder Gretchen Huijskens and Kevin Boone. Late Sunday night, about an hour after they had gone to sleep as Huijskens recalls, Hoffman called and told them to be at the U.S. embassy by 5 a.m. The paperwork was being processed, — not just for Rebecca and Kervens but for all 26 of the Angel House orphans. About 12 hours after they reached the embassy, they were on an official bus, headed for the airport, praying they could get there early enough because the plane's ability to take-off would be limited after dusk.

At 7:30 p.m., Monday Jan. 19, the plane with all on board, touched down in Florida. The 26 kids of Angel House represent the first orphanage in Haiti to get out in its entirety after the earthquake. "I am so joyful for the families that are reunited with their kids," says Reitz, who has two photos of the kids from Three Angels taped above the computer on her desk, one at the orphanage and one when they were arriving in Florida. But she cautions, "Everyone's still swimming in it and there are hundreds and hundreds more. This isn't going to go away any time soon. I just pray that the spirit of generosity won't go away as soon as the media attention is over."