They even sent out a certificate if you signed up a pledge. Hey, it made me feel speshul all warm and fuzzy…

In the end, 8,002,530 downloads in total. Congrats Mozilla Foundation.

Remember how I was trying to raise awareness in this post about “Disaster Fatigue”? Enter Rebtel…

People are in desperate need of help in China and Myanmar (Burma). Rebtel wants to help. We make this offer with no strings attached. Until May 28 you may use Rebtel completely free of charge to contact your friends, family and colleagues in China and Myanmar to make sure they’re okay and offer your help

What:
Free calls to China and Myanmar

When:
Through May 28, 2008

How:
1. Sign up at http://www.rebtel.com/callforhelp
2. Enter your mobile number and your friend’s mobile number in China or Myanmar
3. Rebtel will give you a local number where you live to reach your friend
4. Dial the local phone number to speak with your friend in China or Myanmar

Who:
Available to anyone in 47 countries
http://www.rebtel.com/en/Rates/Rebtel-countries/

I’ve actually used Rebtel in the past when I was looking for a suitable VoIP complement to whenever I was traveling and wanted to call back to the US or allow others in the US to call me. The directions on how to do so aren’t hard at all, and I kept a balance with them for almost a year or so. To me, they had provided a good service… and now they’ve proven themselves to be good people as well.

If your company and/or service is also offering ways to allow others to contact friends, families and colleagues in those countries, feel free to contact me directly: removethelabels [at] gmail [dot] com.

This article from The Associated Press came across and sorta hit home. Per each disaster from Hurricane Katrina, to the Tsunami in Indonesia, to the Cyclone in Myanmar and now the Earthquake in Chengdu, China… we’ve experienced a series of tragic events that have perhaps contributed to what some people call “Disaster Fatigue” mainly because each disaster has been met with less and less funding with the Myanmar disaster being at risk of receiving too little funding.

The numbers are almost too large to fathom, so many Americans stop trying. As bodies pile up in disaster after global disaster, even the most sympathetic souls can turn away.

Charities know this as “donor fatigue,” but it might be more accurately described as disaster fatigue — the sense that these events are never-ending, uncontrollable and overwhelming. Experts say it is one reason Americans have contributed relatively little so far to victims of the Myanmar cyclone and China’s earthquake.

Ironically, the more bad news there is, the less likely people may be to give.

“Hearing about too many disasters makes some people not give at all, when they would have if it had been just one disaster,” says Michal Ann Strahilevitz, who teaches marketing at Golden Gate University and specializes in the factors at play in charitable giving.

Compared with disasters like the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, those in China and Myanmar have generated just a trickle of aid. As of Friday, Americans had given about $12.1 million to charities for Myanmar, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. The group said on Monday that it was too soon to count contributions to China.

A number of factors may be at play in the slow American response, including a lack of sympathy for the repressive governments involved, doubts about whether aid will get through, and an inclination to save pennies because of shaky economic times at home.

But Americans may have also been influenced by the quick succession of monumental catastrophes in two distant lands. At least 130,000 people are dead or missing in the Myanmar cyclone, and more than 34,000 in China’s earthquake.

“For the vast number of Americans, if they just gave to some disaster far away and then another disaster happens, in their mind that’s clumped as `faraway disaster,’” Strahilevitz says. “So they will feel, ‘I just gave to a faraway disaster.’”

This problem came up after the 2004 Asian tsunami, an event that brought an avalanche of $1.92 billion in charity from the United States, according to the Giving USA Foundation. Hurricane Katrina eight months later generated even more, $5.3 billion.

But then fatigue seemed to set in. The earthquake in Pakistan that killed nearly 80,000 people generated just $150 million from Americans. And the Guatemala mudslide shortly thereafter that killed at least 800 was virtually forgotten.

If one disaster can be galvanizing, several in a row can be paralyzing.

Just raising some awareness. Give where you can give. Give to the lesser fortunate.