27 January 2010

Communicators help with Haiti crisis


Communicators are among those responding to the crisis in Haiti following the 12 January earthquake. The Internews network is running a campaign called 'information saves lives' to raise funds to rebuild domestic media in Haiti. Internews is working with local media to assess their needs and acting as a link between providers of aid and local media.

Internews is a founding member of the Inter-Agency Group on Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) that includes UNOCHA, agencies such as the Red Cross and Save the Children, and other media assistance providers such as the BBC World Service Trust and the Reuters Thomson Foundation. UNOCHA has charged Internews as the lead agency on the ground to coordinate CDAC members’ humanitarian information and media assistance activities in Haiti.

Internews is producing a radio programme, Nouvelles-Utiles (News You Can Use), which is re-broadcast by local media, many of whom lost personnel and equipment in the earthquake. The programmes are available here, in Creole:
http://www.internews.org/InfoSavesLives/haiti_radio_programs.shtm

Elsewhere, the UN Mission for Stabilisation in Haiti (MINUSTAH), flew in tonnes of equipment to establish a radio network broadcasting in Creole and French to keep people informed, help them locate aid and essential services and start to recover their lives. The broadcasts are available here:
http://www.minustahfm.org/live.html

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