Ushahidi is doing groundbreaking work on helping to connect Haitians on the ground with humanitarian organizations. Using internet technology, the group is connecting urgent needs of Haitians on the ground with the resources and relief necessary to save lives. Ushahidi is researching the web, tracking radio stations, and receiving text messages directly from Haiti to find messages describing needs of water, food, refuge, medical care, and urgent necessities. Then we map the information and coordinate with aid efforts on the ground to match the service to the need.

The Process

1. Haitians (in Haiti ) text a message to 4636 with where they are and what help they need
2. Volunteers in the Haitian Diaspora log onto our site and translate the text messages (usually in Creole) into English for us
3. Our team here in Boston takes those messages, and using an online map called "Open Street Map" (www.openstreetmap.org ) tries to identify the location of the person who send us the text message, and finds the GPS coordinates of that location
4. Our team then takes those coordinates that and puts it on our map at http://Haiti.ushahidi.com
5. Organizations working on or coordinating with efforts on the ground then use this map we create to help organize their humanitarian response.

But we need you, the Diaspora, because you have the knowledge, experience, and expertise that our team could use to be incredibly more effective and efficient! You can help in countless ways, a few of which are as follows:

In Person

Come by 160 Packard Avenue (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) in the basement to help us (just ask for Ushahidi or 'the Haiti group' at the front desk.

1. Become a trained volunteer: this is our number one priority! We have thousands of text messages coming through which need to be reported and mapped, and there is no community better for this opportunity than the Diaspora. Better yet, the training itself only takes about an hour, and once you have learned some of it can even be done from home If you have a laptop it is helpful, but if not we have computers here for you to use. If you can commit to several hours a week, it would help us to map critical needs on the ground and start to process other important data.
2. Help us map your area! As you may be aware, many of the maps of Haiti are unfortunately incomplete. Countless streets are without names on even the most up to date maps, and if we receive a message from a street we cannot find on our maps, we cannot process the need! And no one knows the streets of Haiti better than you. If you can come in, you can sit down with us and identify street names and important landmarks in your neighborhood! Even one or two names can potentially help us pinpoint a location in a time of need¦
3. Help us translate: most of our messages come in Creole, and most of our volunteers speak English, and so translation is of course critical. We have groups of people all over the country helping us to translate, but unfortunately sometimes there are gaps, delays, or missed messages, so if you can come in during the afternoon or evening, sit down with us for an hour, and translate some of the backlog of messages, it can allow us to identify critical messages that we can work on before the end of the day!

To volunteer for any of these, e-mail ayiti4636@gmail.com, or contact Sabina at Sabina.carlson@gmail.com (609-933-5945) and/ or Nona Lambert at nona.lambert@tufts.edu and we will get back to you right away!

We are having drop-in hours all week from 5:00-8:00 pm to allow us to orient several people at once, but if you would like to come by another time it is no problem at all just if possible, give us a heads up by e-mailing ayiti4636@gmail.com so we know when to expect you.

Online

1. Be an on-call translator: sometimes we get urgent messages that have to be translated on the spot, and need people on-call to help us on short notice! If you can sign up for a skype account, send us your skype name (send to ayiti4636@gmail.com) and we will enter you into our Creole Translators chat. Just keep your skype open all day at work, school, or home in the background, and we will send you a message if we have an important translation!
2. Be an on-call reference: many times, we get information about urgent situations but the locations given are unclear or unknown to us. If you know a particular area of the city well, please, please consider signing up to our rapid response network, which we can
   1. Skype: sign up to a Skye account for free at www.skype.com and send your name to ayiti4636@gmail.com and we will enter you into our Rapid Responders chat. Just keep your skype open all day at work, school, or home in the background, and we will send you a message if we have an important question about a location!
   2. Facebook: if you are a facebook user, sign up to the facebook group Ushahidi-Haiti-Information Service and we will use it to post any urgent questions we may have!
   3. E-mail: if you check your e-mails often, send your e-mail to ayiti4636@gmail.com with information about what areas of Haiti you know best and we will add you to a special listserv that we will send if we have urgent questions about a location!
3. Fill in our maps! As we said above, we are using the most up to date and complete maps (an open source map called Open Street Maps that you can see at www.openstreetmap.org ) that are currently available, but they are missing information for huge areas of Haiti! While it is good for us to be able to reach out to the Haitian community if we have a request about an area we can't find, it is that much faster, better, and efficient if the Diaspora can fill in those missing pieces as soon as possible so we waste less time looking up the location. And the good news is: anyone can update the map from anywhere in the world, including you! If you know an area affected by the earthquake very well and can identify street names or landmarks, e-mail Sabina.carlson@gmail.com and she will send you step-by-step instructions on how to use this simple technology or you can set up an in-person introduction within a day!

On The Ground

1. Tell your family and friends about the text number: let your friends and family on the ground know about this 4636 number to be used in emergency situations! And just as important: tell them to include
   1. what specific address and neighborhood are they at,
   2. what streets or landmarks are nearby,
   3. what kind of assistance do they need,
   4. how many people are with them,
   5. what number they can be reached at.

      The best information would be coordinates from a smart phone or GPS device. Please stress to everyone you talk to that we are a technology organization and that we can only help with the first stage of delivering help, which is figuring out where it is needed, and we cannot guarantee a direct response!

2. Tell us about urgent situations you know about: If you are in contact with people in Haiti who need emergency assistance and you know their location, please send us (ayiti4636@gmail.com ) as much of the information listed above as you can
3. Put us in touch with people you know on the ground: if you have good contacts on the ground, people who are community leaders, helping with aid and relief efforts, or are mobile and are able to move around Port au Prince to monitor the situation, please give us ( ayiti4636@gmail.com ) their contact information! It can be incredibly valuable to have people on the ground we can go to with questions...

For any other questions at all, don't hesitate to e-mail ayiti4636@gmail.com or contact Sabina at Sabina.carlson@gmail.com (609-933-5945) and/ or Nona Lambert at nona.lambert@tufts.edu and we will get back to you right away! Sabina speaks French and a bit of Kreyol if you do not speak English.