Whether you agree or not, more opinions, not less, are needed on the subjects.
Read the rest of this entry »
This information is almost 1 week old, and thus should not be taken for fact. However, it does give a good idea of numbers in terms of IDPs (internally-displaced peoples), and where they’re settling. We took a trip to two communities yesterday (Ravine Sable and Tete Source) and the impact the IDPs were having was quite evident. That being said, we also realized that a lot of the people coming back to the countryside from Port au Prince are relatively well-educated, and could be extremely useful in helping the developing of the country as a whole, rather than in 1-2 cities. Ultimately, of course, the lure of cities may be too strong, but right now who knows?
The SUD department is broken down into 18 communes. The UNDP has data on 10 of them:
Arniquet: 112 IDPs—38 injured.
Chantal: 12,220 IDPs—425 injured
Ill a Vache: 600 IDPs—O injured
St. Jean du Sud: 3,721 IDPs—93 injured
Chardonnieres: 2,459 IDPs
Tiburon: 3,000 IDPs
Coteaux: 4,431 IDPs—incidents of typhoid of have been reported
Port a Piment: 10,000 IDPs
Centre-Ville d’Aquin (not the countyside): 628 IDPs
USAID makes some nice maps.
Link to Hospital and Field Medical Locations-Port au Prince (as of Jan. 26)
Link to Health Cluster Maps-Functioning Health Facilities and Priorities (as of Jan. 25)
Bureau of Haiti’s Special Envoy to the UN Needs Vols to Monitor Haiti Radio Seeking individuals fluent in Creole and English or Creole and French to volunteer 2-3 hours daily listening to Haitian Radio and report onstatements, comments and news focused on Government of Haiti actions in response to the quake. This is a request for volunteers with access to a computer and the internet. You can work from home. You will report to me initially, as the Senior Advisor to Haiti’s Special Envoy to the United Nations. Pass this on. Prompt response please. When responding, please state qualifications, time of day that you can volunteer, # of hours that you can devote to volunteering, # of times in a week that you can volunteer. You will be expected to submit a report at the end of each volunteering session and expected to be quick on your feet with respect to reporting urgent news. Thanks. Jocelyn McCalla | Senior Advisor Bureau of Haiti’s Special Envoy to the UN 801 Second Avenue, Suite 600 | New York, NY 10017 V: (212) 370-4840 ext. 36 | Fax: (212) 661-8698 jmccalla@beephaiti.org | mobile: 862.452.7196
Bureau of Haiti’s Special Envoy to the UN Needs Vols to Monitor Haiti Radio
Seeking individuals fluent in Creole and English or Creole and French to volunteer 2-3 hours daily listening to Haitian Radio and report onstatements, comments and news focused on Government of Haiti actions in response to the quake.
This is a request for volunteers with access to a computer and the internet. You can work from home. You will report to me initially, as the Senior Advisor to Haiti’s Special Envoy to the United Nations. Pass this on. Prompt response please.
When responding, please state qualifications, time of day that you can volunteer, # of hours that you can devote to volunteering, # of times in a week that you can volunteer. You will be expected to submit a report at the end of each volunteering session and expected to be quick on your feet with respect to reporting urgent news.
Thanks.
Jocelyn McCalla | Senior Advisor Bureau of Haiti’s Special Envoy to the UN 801 Second Avenue, Suite 600 | New York, NY 10017 V: (212) 370-4840 ext. 36 | Fax: (212) 661-8698 jmccalla@beephaiti.org | mobile: 862.452.7196
Some ICT solutions being deployed in Haiti right now
Great maps and shapefiles, previously only available to UN personnelle.
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/htmain.htm
Click on ALERT!!! Haiti earthquake relief & Geographic data to get to the newly available maps.
I’ve been inundated with requests by people wanting to be volunteers in Haiti. While they’re intentions are great, unfortunetely there are too many conversations like this:
Me: Hope for Haiti Caller: Hi! I want to get on the next flight to Haiti and help! Me: Oh, hi, thank you! Do you have a background in medicine or disaster relief? Caller: Not at all! I just want to help!
Me: Hope for Haiti
Caller: Hi! I want to get on the next flight to Haiti and help!
Me: Oh, hi, thank you! Do you have a background in medicine or disaster relief?
Caller: Not at all! I just want to help!
I get it, and I don’t begrudge them one bit. But the truth is, right now the only volunteers needed are experts. Haiti will need plenty of non-expert volunteers in the coming weeks and months, but for now resources there are so tight, and security is so haphazard, that it’s not practical, safe, or helpful to go down there.
So what can I do? Give money to these big orgs that already have raised a ton?
Well, yeah, that would be a good start. Give $5. Give $10. I’m working with Hope for Haiti, and we’re having our first plane full of doctors and nurses land in Port au Prince in about 10 minutes. Another plane is landing in the DR with supplies. So the money being donated to Hope for Haiti IS REACHING HAITIAN PEOPLE.
But let’s say you already donated, or want to help in a more tangible way. If you’ve got tech skills, we need your help with Crises Mapping.
From the co-founder of Ushahidi (quotes are from Beth’s Blog)
We have received tremendous support from the crisis mapping community through the Crisis Mapping Network, the developer community, collaborating organizations like UN OCHA Columbia, INSTEDD, Haitianquake, Digital Democracy, FrontlineSMS, Google and others, and dozens of volunteers who’ve helped with everything from data entry, to translations, to data filtering. Since the site went live, the team has been working round the clock to make improvements to the instance, fix problems (our server has crashed several times already and our alert system went beserk!), coordinate efforts with volunteers, share information with partners, and collaborate with other tech-based efforts e.g. the people finder at Haitianquake (since merged with Google’s). The fact that we have a global team means that we have been able to offer round the clock support, with the Africa-based team taking over when the US-based team goes to sleep and vice versa.
We have received tremendous support from the crisis mapping community through the Crisis Mapping Network, the developer community, collaborating organizations like UN OCHA Columbia, INSTEDD, Haitianquake, Digital Democracy, FrontlineSMS, Google and others, and dozens of volunteers who’ve helped with everything from data entry, to translations, to data filtering.
Since the site went live, the team has been working round the clock to make improvements to the instance, fix problems (our server has crashed several times already and our alert system went beserk!), coordinate efforts with volunteers, share information with partners, and collaborate with other tech-based efforts e.g. the people finder at Haitianquake (since merged with Google’s). The fact that we have a global team means that we have been able to offer round the clock support, with the Africa-based team taking over when the US-based team goes to sleep and vice versa.
Ory describes their current challenges, including:
Close the feedback loop: that is, ensure that agencies trying to figure out where help is needed are tracking our reports and following up on requests for help that are coming in. We are currently doing this via the Crisis Mappers network, Sahana, and Internews and INSTEDD teams who have just landed in Haiti, but a lot more needs to be done.
From the Miami Herald
BY TRENTON DANIEL AND ANDRES VIGLUCCI aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com
The roads to Jacmel are blocked and the only way to travel is by foot or motorcycle. While the world’s attention focused on earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, a catastrophe of parallel magnitude has been unfolding in isolation on the country’s southern coast, which the quake left littered with smashed buildings and extensive casualties. Read the rest of this entry »
Link to full res image
This Saturday, CrisisCamp will bring together volunteers to collaborate on technology projects which aim to assist in Haiti’s relief efforts by providing data, information, maps and technical assistance to NGOs, relief agencies and the public.
