On Saturday, February 27th, at 3:34 am local time, a devastating magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The earthquake had its epicenter some 100 kilometers west of Concepcion, Chile's second largest city with 600'000 inhabitants. Up to now, over 700 persons have been reported to be killed, 2 million people to be displaced, injured or otherwise impaired by the disaster. First damage estimates by Eqecat, a Californinan Risk Analysis company result in about 30 bn US$, half  of them due to damage to residential buildings, and the other half due to damage to critical infrastructures, commercial and industrial facilities. >>> read more

28 - 30 January 2010 in Davos, Switzerland

From Thursday, 28th January to Saturday, 30th January 2010 GRF Davos invited to 3 great films showing the devastating effects of human activities on the earth. Subsequent to the screenings GRF had invited several experts to panel discussions, including Claudio Lardi, Governor of the Canton of Grisons, David Syz, former statesecretary for economic affairs and the producer of the film "Beyond a dollar a day", Reto Dürst, Landrat of the Community of Davos, and other experts and political representatives. See impressions, videos and pictures of the events here.

The GRF Davos team is deeply grieving for the victims of the horrible earthquake which hit Haiti on 12 Jan. at 4.53pm, and offers the Haitian people all its warm condolence. Several tens of thousands of people are estimated dead or missing, and further tens of thousands have been injured. Public infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, government buildings, as well as private houses have collapsed. As a result, standing hospitals are overwhelmed with victims, and tens of thousands are left homeless.

What can you do?

The victims of this disaster need your support today. If you want to help, you may find links to documents and web pages which offer further information here. We encourage you to contribute to this list and upload further materials. As the number of injured survivors grows and the needs mount, you can directly help providing immediate lifesaving services to especially women, children and the elderly. We have linked some organisations where you can donate.