[MUSIC PLAYING]
ALEX DIAZ: After most major
natural disasters on record,
inequality skyrockets.
Those that are most
affected by disasters
tend to be the most
marginalized communities.
MICHAEL FAYE: It's hard
to find a disaster where
you don't find the stories
after of waste and inefficiency.
When responding to
a disaster, we're
looking to work in the
most vulnerable areas
because that's where the
money's going to go the furthest
and help the most.
AMANDA GLASSMAN: The majority
of post-disaster giving today is
in kind--
bottled water, used clothing.
These are the ideas that we
have about what people need,
but they might actually need
totally different things.
And that's what cash
transfers address.
You can use cash for
whatever you really need.
So this is just an easier
way to meet people's needs
in a very short period of time.
MICHAEL FAYE: What we
do is we give cash,
no strings attached,
to individuals,
to make their own decisions
about what they need most.
They may use it to
rebuild their home.
They may use it to buy a car
because their car flooded,
and this allows them to get
back to work more quickly.
And the list goes on.
AMANDA GLASSMAN: I think
the main benefits are speed,
meeting the needs of the person
as they define them themselves,
and accountability,
knowing that the money got
to the right person and
what they used it on.
ALEX DIAZ: There is a
robust amount of information
that shows, in the
natural disaster space,
that direct cash is actually
one of the better interventions.
So we're excited to work
closely with GiveDirectly
to really test that hypothesis.
Google.org is providing
GiveDirectly with a $3 million
grant to be used for
a US-based disaster.
And we are pairing that grant
with four Google.org Fellows.
JANAK RAMAKRISHNAN: When
a natural disaster hits,
our Maps will help
GiveDirectly target the areas
with the highest need
and the most damage.
ALEX DIAZ: Imagine a system that
integrates census data, poverty
data, and overlay that
with disaster data
after a disaster has hit.
JULIE XIA: In the
post-disaster space,
it's like chaos everywhere.
And so anything we can do to
help bring some order to chaos
would be huge.
[CHATTER]
JANAK RAMAKRISHNAN: I'm
hopeful that we can actually
say we saved GiveDirectly
this much work, we got money
out this much faster, and
that really made a difference.
JULIE XIA: I think that's
the classic Google fit.
This has been studied.
It's shown to work.
Let's get in there
and use the power
of being Google to amplify.
MICHAEL FAYE: Throughout
the relationship,
Google.org have challenged us
to think bigger and think about
not only how we can
transform individuals' lives,
but how we can transform
the entire sector.
