The Christchurch Earthquake - A call for help

As you are probably aware, last week New Zealand’s second largest city, Christchurch, was hit by a devastating earthquake. One that looks to be the countries largest natural disaster ever. There have been many various ways for people around the world to help out, but there was one that I found out about today that I had to share with my fellow developers and friends in the Delphi community. Please bear with me as I elaborate.

Over the last few months, I have really embraced Twitter, and one of the people I follow is an iOS and OSX developer based in New Zealand named David Frampton. Among other apps, he is the developer responsible for the hugely successful Chopper and Chopper 2 iOS and OSX games. When the quake struck, Twitter was a flurry of activity, and one of the stories unfolding revolved around his mother.

First he tweeted that his mother was in the Christchurch CBD, and he was waiting to hear from her. As many Kiwis were doing at this stage, he was intently watching the story unfolding on television. One of the first images showing the extent of the destruction centered around a 4 storey office building (the Pyne Gould Corporation building).

When David witnessed this footage, he exclaimed that this was his mothers workplace, and that she was probably on the third floor of the building. The next day, and after an anxious night with little sleep, he tweeted that his mum has been found. She was still trapped, but was talking to rescuers. This was followed a few hours later by a tweet confirming that his mother had been rescued, and was relatively unharmed.

His mothers name is Anne Bodkin, and at the time of writing she remains the last person to have been rescued alive from any of the ruined buildings littering Christchurch’s landscape. Rescuers are still working bravely and tirelessly to see if they can find any more trapped survivors.

And here is how you, my fellow software developers, can step in to help. Today, I found that David and a bunch of other New Zealand developers have rallied together and are giving 100% of the proceeds from sales of their applications directly to the New Zealand Red Cross appeal (http://www.appappeal.co.nz/). Of course, once I found this out I rushed off to the AppStore and purchased a copy of the excellent Chopper 2 for my iPhone. At the time of writing, there are 31 applications to choose from, written by a bunch of extremely talented New Zealand developers (including PikPok Games; the software house responsible for a host of excellent iPhone and Android games). Please take the time to browse the software on offer, and see if any take your fancy. If they do, please consider a purchase. Not only will you get some kick-ass new software, but you will also be helping out the Christchurch quake victims, who can really do with a helping hand right now.

Share This | Email this page to a friend

Posted by David Clegg on February 27th, 2011 under General |