In 1999, Microsoft employees from the European offices responded to the Kosovo crisis by creating The Refugee Field Kit – a computer-based method of providing displaced people (most of whom had been stripped of identity papers when fleeing Kosovo) with new official identity cards and an easier method for finding missing family members. Discussions with UNHCR revealed that they needed help with a new refugee registration system – having 800,000 pieces of paper sitting around wasn’t very efficient. So 50-60 Microsoft employees donated 12 person-years to developing the system. Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the project.