Haiti in need...

CRIES FOR HELP VIA TEXT MESSAGES ARE USED TO DIRECT AID TO HAITI

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MIAMI - From his makeshift workstation, Mr Ryan Bank spends hours sifting through thousands of electronic cries for help from Haitian earthquake victims, many detailing the horrors of dead family members, hunger and homelessness.

"I'm hungry and I have no one," says one text message from a Haitian man living in a tent city with thousands of others whose homes were destroyed in the quake. "People are unable to breathe due to the smell of the dead," says another.

Mr Bank, a Coast Guard volunteer who runs his own technology company in Chicago, said he had received more than 18,000 messages.

"Most of them are utterly heartbreaking," he said while staring at a list of messages sent to him through a new emergency relief effort that relies on text messages and social networking websites to help coordinate humanitarian aid in Haiti.

Along with the United States State Department, the Pentagon and aid groups, as well as Haiti's leading mobile phone carrier and countless volunteers, the Coast Guard is part of an emergency contact network for Haitians to send text messages requesting aid. Those involved in the effort also monitor Facebook and Twitter postings for information indicating where supplies are needed.

To get the word out about the new program, the distress code number - 4636 - was sent to every mobile phone on the Haitian network. Word of the programme also went out on local Haitian radio stations.

Text messages from Haitians saying that they needed food and water helped identify a tent city that the American military and relief workers were previously unaware of, Mr Bank said.

And more Haitians are using the service every day, he said, noting the increase in volunteers needed to translate the messages from Haitian Creole into English.

Once the messages make it to his computer screen, Mr Bank passes the information along to military personnel at the United States Southern Command in South Florida, which in turn coordinates with American military personnel in Haiti to help them locate those in need.

The choice to base the emergency network on text messaging was because of the damage Haiti's telecommunications system suffered in the quake. Fallen cell towers and overloaded networks made telephone calls nearly impossible.

However, text messaging was still available and widely used among Haitians trying to locate friends and loved ones among the rubble. Even the least sophisticated of cellphones has a text-messaging option, noted Mr Josh Nesbit, co-founder of FrontlineSMS:Medic, an aid group that provides free open-source software communication for medical workers in developing countries. He helped set up the Haiti emergency program.

Since its conception just hours after the Jan 12 earthquake, the joint programme has expanded to include regular news and information updates to those who have reached out through the emergency line, telling them where to find food relief and seek medical attention. The New York Times

From TODAY, Monday, 22-Feb-2010

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