HELP HAITI HEAL
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Official Press Release from Humanity Road, Inc.
April 27, 2010
Press Release 01.042710
Changing the Face of Disaster Response Communications
Humanity Road, Inc. Announces its Formal Organization and New Website
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (April 27, 2010)
Contact: Christine Thompson, 434.774.4515 or press@humanityroad.org
WASHINGTON, DC / BOYDTON, VA – 7 days after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, Chris Thompson (@Redcrossmom) was sitting at her computer in Boydton, VA and Donna Lee Weber (@1staid4) was doing the same from Babylon, NY. They were both sending twitter messages and inputting incident reports into the Ushahidi tracking system like dozens of others trying to find ways to help the Haitian people.
Ms. Weber and Ms. Thompson joined forces on January 14th and launched a website called HelpHaitiHeal.wordpress.com to store facts gleaned from various broadcast media, Internet and social networking sources. They would then tweet this information globally to help agencies responding as well as to help the public stay informed.
Meanwhile, volunteers at Milot Hospital in Cap Haitien, Haiti, tried desperately to get the attention of rescue teams. Milot Hospital, located outside the affected area, had beds, staff and surgical facilities available. Sadly, the beds remained empty. Power outages in the affected area, prevented any communication between rescue teams inside the impacted areas and the hospital.
On January 18th, Christine and Donna were monitoring twitter and noticed that Milot hospital had still received no patients. They confirmed this by contacting Dr. Tim Traynor at Milot Hospital. Christine used Twitter to notify CNN and the Coast Guard of the hospital’s GPS coordinates and of Dr. Traynor’s request to transport patients. In just a few hours, CNN broadcasted live from a helicopter transporting a patient from the USS Comfort to Milot Hospital. The following day, Tim Traynor sent Christine a thank you email and confirmed that Milot was now receiving patients and requested a relay to notify the Coast Guard that Milot has 2 heliports, not 1, and can accommodate additional inbound patients.
Donna and Christine volunteer for the non-profit organization Humanity Road, Inc., which focuses on communicating where aid is available and where it is needed to the public during a catastrophic disaster. Using a defined process, trained volunteers maintain a repository of aid information. They employ a wide range of technology solutions for managing and sharing information in the wake of a large-scale disaster.
The concept was conceived by Ms. Thompson, a Marketing Manager for Verizon Communications with 28 years experience deploying products and services, and Cat Graham of Hollywood, FL who has 30 years experience with non-profit, volunteer and disaster response activities. Disaster response work has been a lifelong community service commitment for the two founders of Humanity Road, Inc., including 9/11 and hurricanes Katrina and Ike.
“It seemed a natural transition for us to move to an online approach for Haiti considering the devastation caused by the January 12th earthquake. Within the first hours and days, we were helping collect, confirm and route incidents, broadcasting the need for blood supply at area hospitals, and providing GPS information and status of hospital facilities. We quickly realized that in the initial hours of any large scale disaster, our volunteers around the world are able ensure people know where to go and whom to call to begin the road to recovery." - Christine Thompson
Along with Ms. Thompson, Ms. Graham and Ms Weber, board members of the organization include Treasurer, Mr. Robert A. Enholm, former Chief of the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund Secretariat (CERF), and Secretary/General Counsel, Mr. D. Cary Mitchell, a Washington, DC telecommunications regulatory attorney, who provided volunteer support to the Greater Washington Haiti Relief Committee (GWHRC) in the wake of the recent earthquake.
Volunteers from the US, Canada, Haiti, France, Ireland and Germany have all assisted Humanity Road in disaster response activities in 2010. They are people who are united by a desire to use their time and talents to facilitate communications between those providing aid and those needing aid. Because of its unique approach, the group’s services are able to target public communications with the affected population both inside and outside the impacted area with a scalable, repeatable process.
Learn more about Humanity Road, Inc. at our new website http://HumanityRoad.org or follow us on Twitter @HumanityRoad. For further information, please contact:
Christine Thompson, President
Twitter @Redcrossmom
Chris.Thompson@HumanityRoad.org
Cat Graham, Vice-President
Twitter @Peaceful_Intent
Cat.Graham@HumanityRoad.org
Press Release 01.042710
Changing the Face of Disaster Response Communications
Humanity Road, Inc. Announces its Formal Organization and New Website
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (April 27, 2010)
Contact: Christine Thompson, 434.774.4515 or press@humanityroad.org
WASHINGTON, DC / BOYDTON, VA – 7 days after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, Chris Thompson (@Redcrossmom) was sitting at her computer in Boydton, VA and Donna Lee Weber (@1staid4) was doing the same from Babylon, NY. They were both sending twitter messages and inputting incident reports into the Ushahidi tracking system like dozens of others trying to find ways to help the Haitian people.
Ms. Weber and Ms. Thompson joined forces on January 14th and launched a website called HelpHaitiHeal.wordpress.com to store facts gleaned from various broadcast media, Internet and social networking sources. They would then tweet this information globally to help agencies responding as well as to help the public stay informed.
Meanwhile, volunteers at Milot Hospital in Cap Haitien, Haiti, tried desperately to get the attention of rescue teams. Milot Hospital, located outside the affected area, had beds, staff and surgical facilities available. Sadly, the beds remained empty. Power outages in the affected area, prevented any communication between rescue teams inside the impacted areas and the hospital.
On January 18th, Christine and Donna were monitoring twitter and noticed that Milot hospital had still received no patients. They confirmed this by contacting Dr. Tim Traynor at Milot Hospital. Christine used Twitter to notify CNN and the Coast Guard of the hospital’s GPS coordinates and of Dr. Traynor’s request to transport patients. In just a few hours, CNN broadcasted live from a helicopter transporting a patient from the USS Comfort to Milot Hospital. The following day, Tim Traynor sent Christine a thank you email and confirmed that Milot was now receiving patients and requested a relay to notify the Coast Guard that Milot has 2 heliports, not 1, and can accommodate additional inbound patients.
Donna and Christine volunteer for the non-profit organization Humanity Road, Inc., which focuses on communicating where aid is available and where it is needed to the public during a catastrophic disaster. Using a defined process, trained volunteers maintain a repository of aid information. They employ a wide range of technology solutions for managing and sharing information in the wake of a large-scale disaster.
The concept was conceived by Ms. Thompson, a Marketing Manager for Verizon Communications with 28 years experience deploying products and services, and Cat Graham of Hollywood, FL who has 30 years experience with non-profit, volunteer and disaster response activities. Disaster response work has been a lifelong community service commitment for the two founders of Humanity Road, Inc., including 9/11 and hurricanes Katrina and Ike.
“It seemed a natural transition for us to move to an online approach for Haiti considering the devastation caused by the January 12th earthquake. Within the first hours and days, we were helping collect, confirm and route incidents, broadcasting the need for blood supply at area hospitals, and providing GPS information and status of hospital facilities. We quickly realized that in the initial hours of any large scale disaster, our volunteers around the world are able ensure people know where to go and whom to call to begin the road to recovery." - Christine Thompson
Along with Ms. Thompson, Ms. Graham and Ms Weber, board members of the organization include Treasurer, Mr. Robert A. Enholm, former Chief of the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund Secretariat (CERF), and Secretary/General Counsel, Mr. D. Cary Mitchell, a Washington, DC telecommunications regulatory attorney, who provided volunteer support to the Greater Washington Haiti Relief Committee (GWHRC) in the wake of the recent earthquake.
Volunteers from the US, Canada, Haiti, France, Ireland and Germany have all assisted Humanity Road in disaster response activities in 2010. They are people who are united by a desire to use their time and talents to facilitate communications between those providing aid and those needing aid. Because of its unique approach, the group’s services are able to target public communications with the affected population both inside and outside the impacted area with a scalable, repeatable process.
Learn more about Humanity Road, Inc. at our new website http://HumanityRoad.org or follow us on Twitter @HumanityRoad. For further information, please contact:
Christine Thompson, President
Twitter @Redcrossmom
Chris.Thompson@HumanityRoad.org
Cat Graham, Vice-President
Twitter @Peaceful_Intent
Cat.Graham@HumanityRoad.org
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
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