Twelve days after the earthquake, Port-au-Prince has no power grid and no landlines. At night, the only illumination comes from the fires of burning trash and a smattering of lights on the hills of Laboule and Boutilier where the wealthy have generators.
But Haitians have cell phones, including the tens of thousands who sleep in the capital's streets, fearful of aftershocks.
Despite the devastation to infrastructure from Haiti's January 12 earthquake, cell phones are emerging as a lifeline for many survivors.
Just two days after the quake, a team from Thomson Reuters Foundation's AlertNet humanitarian news service touched down in a twin-prop plane at Port-au-Prince's international airport to set up the first-ever Emergency Information Service (EIS), offering Haitians free, practical SMS messages to help them minimize the disaster's impact.
Despite countless logistical setbacks, EIS got off the ground in about 48 hours, and since its launch thousands have used the service to report missing persons, shelter problems and food issues.
Just a few days after the earthquake, EIS was able to direct injured Haitians via text message to one of the few hospitals able to treat patients.
The service also helped search-and-rescue teams to find people trapped in the rubble.
In one case, a man trapped for five days in a collapsed building in downtown Port-au-Prince sent a text message, which the EIS team, working through the night with experts around the world, translated into GPS coordinates. A search-and-rescue team was dispatched and saved his life.
Working with InSTEDD, an innovative humanitarian technology NGO, an information system was created allowing Haitians subscribed to the Digicel and Comcel networks to register with a simple shortcode -- 4636 -- to receive free Creole-language alerts.
In addition to receiving critical news and information, Haitians can send, at no cost, text messages into the system. This ensures a stream of on-the-ground information of use to aid groups.
The shortcode was publicized chiefly through local Radio stations, including Signal FM, Melody FM, MINUSTAH Radio FM and Caraibes FM. The latter broadcasts from the sidewalk outside its quake-damaged building, sucking power off a car engine.
As of the time of writing, EIS had received nearly 10,000 text messages from Haitians, all translated into English and geo-tagged by hundreds of global volunteers organized by "crowd-sourcing" NGO Ushahidi. The information is also available through RSS feeds.
Working with local Radio
But while the number of EIS subscribers grows by the day, Radio is still the most efficient way to reach a mass audience. That's why local broadcasters are used to help spread key information, often acting as a bridge between the international aid effort and local media.
In this respect, AlertNet's efforts mesh nicely with other initiatives launched in the wake of Haiti's quake.
Internews, a media development organization, has been broadcasting a daily Creole-language program called "Nouvelles-Utiles" (News You Can Use) on 12 Radio stations since January 21. The BBC World Service has just begun producing a daily 20-minute show out of Miami called "Connexion Haitienne."
All this is part of efforts to improve communications with disaster survivors led by Communications with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC), an inter-agency working group comprising Thomson Reuters Foundation, Internews, BBC World Service Trust, the Red Cross, Save the Children, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and others.
"The issue we face is getting the message out to the affected community that aid is coming, that something is being done," said OCHA spokesman Nicholas Reader.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military is distributing 50,000 solar- and crank-powered Radios in the capital.
(Source: Reuters, 01/25/10)
