Since I have arrived in Haiti I don’t need an alarm clock any longer. At 06:30 the heat in my tent is so stifling that I cannot bear staying inside any longer. But even if it wasn’t so hot – the noise of the five other people I’m sharing the tent with would be more than enough to wake me. Anybody who thinks that aid workers in Haiti have an easy life, should spend a few nights at the IFRC base camp.
“Back to Haiti” – or – “I will digress”
On May - 2 - 2010
2 Comments
I have been given the opportunity to return to Haiti for the next three months. I will be working as the communicator for the inter-agency “Shelter Cluster”. That will mean that for the immediate future this blog will be less about social media and primarily about my time in Haiti.
Haiti: behind the scenes of an earthquake relief operation
On April - 29 - 2010
0 Comment
Wired magazine just published an excellent article about the Red Cross Red Crescent relief operation in Haiti. Author Vince Beiser takes 13 pages to describe the inner workings of the operation. And while he is not shy on criticism, it is well balanced and fair.
Social media case studies for non-profit organizations
On April - 19 - 2010
2 Comments
I find it’s pretty rare that you come across good, fresh case studies of how non-profit organizations are using social media. And I’m not talking about “we use Facebook, too.” I mean something that shows how an NGO actually managed to get a concrete, measurable result with the help of social media. “10 tactics for turning information into action” from Tactical Tech is such a rare example. 10 tactics is first and foremost a one hour long movie, but it’s also[...]
Aid workers: These are your life options …
On April - 6 - 2010
19 Comments
You’re an aid worker with 10+ years experience under your belt. You earn a pittance but it works for you because you are non-resident at home so you don’t pay tax, you are catered for on assignment so you don’t pay rent,and your mortgage is covered by the people renting your place because you are never there. Welcome to your future – these are your life options …
A website for Haiti Red Cross
On April - 5 - 2010
3 Comments
I’ve recently come back from Haiti where I trained the Haiti Red Cross webmaster on WordPress, the CMS which we had agreed on. I was there for one week and Haiti Red Cross now finally has its own website and email.
Building a non-profit website with WordPress – from scratch
On March - 1 - 2010
8 Comments
What would you do if you could build a non-profit website from scratch without worrying about any integration issues? That’s exactly what I’m doing at the moment. In this post I’m sharing my ideas and I’d love to hear your’s.
How SMS saved lives in Haiti – behind the scenes of Ushahidi
On February - 22 - 2010
0 Comment
You have probably heard of ”Ushahidi“. Right after the Haiti earthquake, the near impossible to pronounce organization set up a service that allowed people in Haiti to submit reports and requests for help by SMS. Those messages were then geo-tagged, categorized, displayed on a website and distributed to relief workers in Haiti. It’s a really impressive system and it was up and running only four days after the earthquake struck. And what’s more: it worked in the local language, Haitian[...]
