The natural calamity and devastation hitting Japan’s Kyushu region and Ecuador is known to everyone, and technical communities are doing their best bit to help the victims. The latest expanding hand comes from Microsoft which has announced free domestic and international calls to landlines and mobiles in Japan and Ecuador for the next few days.
The announcement is in place with immediate effect. In case you have friends and relatives, doing a Skype check can help in case the voice services are absent.
As of now, the death toll has risen to 272 and might go higher. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa visited the areas hard hit by the quake and expressed concern over the rising death count. It is the strongest earthquake with magnitude-7.8 to hit Ecuador since 1979, was centered on Ecuador’s sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, 105 miles (170 kilometers) northwest of Quito, the capital.
In Correa’s words, “The pain is very large, the tragedy is very large, but we’ll find the way to move forward. If our pain is immense, still larger is the spirt of our people.”
Let’s hope that rescue operations are carried successfully and more people are saved. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the earthquake in both these countries.