Emergency Information Service
Foundation launches free information service for Haiti quake disaster
Sunday 17 January 2010
To register, survivors subscribing to the Digicell network, largest in the Caribbean, text their location to the SMS shortcode 4636. By return, up to date, reliable, actionable information in French and Creole will be sent to them wherever they are in Haiti, helping them to reach shelter, aid and loved ones. The service will cost them nothing.
The service also acts as a news and information gathering mechanism, whereby survivors can report information directly into the Foundation’s new Emergency Information Service team of specialist journalists. The EIS team will collate this information and it will by made available to agencies, emergency teams and local media.
People outside Haiti and the quake zone can register their loved ones' mobile phone numbers on their behalf. The SMS shortcode is dependent on local telecommunications infrastructure; if the infrastructure fails, the local SMS service will not work.
The EIS also aims to get critical information to survivors via local media, especially radio. The Foundation already has a team of expert humanitarian journalists in Haiti to collect and disseminate information.
Foundation chief executive Monique Villa said: "In times of major natural catastrophes, information itself is aid, as crucial as shelter or blankets. All forms of communication in Haiti have been impaired and the EIS team will help fill the communication void providing reliable, actionable information to the disaster affected population.”
The Emergency Information Service is a first service of its kind, launched by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in December 2009. The EIS will be deployed when major natural disasters strike communities around the world, leaving them with no reliable communication infrastructure. EIS Action-Units will be deployed within hours of a disaster and upon arrival in the disaster zone will seek out, collate and disseminate life-saving information to disaster-hit populations.
● AlertNet
● Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thomson Reuters Foundation launches humanitarian news lifeline
Tuesday 15 December 2009
The Thomson Reuters Foundation launched its Emergency Information Service (EIS), a humanitarian news lifeline designed to help the survivors of major natural disasters. The free service will supply fast and practical information from all available sources, such as help in finding shelters, drinking water and missing relatives.
“The aim is to provide accurate and actionable information to the affected population,” Monique Villa, chief executive of the Foundation, told a launch event at Thomson Reuters’ London office at Canary Wharf.
An EIS team of journalists based in the disaster zone will collect information and disseminate it in local languages using all available communications, from SMS text messages and radio to “zero tech” methods such as posters, leaflets and megaphones.
Tim Large, editor of Alertnet, the Foundation’s humanitarian news service, said the teams would comprise Alertnet and Reuters-trained reporters working with local media and NGOs. They would also cooperate with the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a major supporter of AlertNet since it was founded in 1997, as well as other NGOs.
The inspiration for the EIS came from the 1994 Tsunami disaster, which killed 226,000 people and demonstrated on a massive scale the victims’ need for vital information. To mark the fifth anniversary, AlertNet and the Red Cross have teamed up to pay tribute to the survivors in a film called Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of Hope, which was shown at the launch event. Watch the trailer, right, or click on the link below to see the whole film.
● Emergency Information Service
● AlertNet
● Reporter’s Notebook by Dean Yates
● Surviving the Tsunami | VIDEO
“The aim is to provide accurate and actionable information to the affected population,” Monique Villa, chief executive of the Foundation, told a launch event at Thomson Reuters’ London office at Canary Wharf.
An EIS team of journalists based in the disaster zone will collect information and disseminate it in local languages using all available communications, from SMS text messages and radio to “zero tech” methods such as posters, leaflets and megaphones.
Tim Large, editor of Alertnet, the Foundation’s humanitarian news service, said the teams would comprise Alertnet and Reuters-trained reporters working with local media and NGOs. They would also cooperate with the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a major supporter of AlertNet since it was founded in 1997, as well as other NGOs.
The inspiration for the EIS came from the 1994 Tsunami disaster, which killed 226,000 people and demonstrated on a massive scale the victims’ need for vital information. To mark the fifth anniversary, AlertNet and the Red Cross have teamed up to pay tribute to the survivors in a film called Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of Hope, which was shown at the launch event. Watch the trailer, right, or click on the link below to see the whole film.
● Emergency Information Service
● AlertNet
● Reporter’s Notebook by Dean Yates
● Surviving the Tsunami | VIDEO
