Internews worked around the clock to establish the connection between the telethon and a nationwide radio station based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
WASHINGTON, DC and London- 23 January 2010 — Earthquake survivors in Haiti heard first hand a worldwide chorus of support through Friday’s telethon.
Internews, a nonprofit media development organization, worked around the clock to establish the connection between the telethon and a nationwide radio station based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. With the help of Internews, MTV, Westwood One, the BBC and CNN, the Haitian people were able to hear the broadcast through a national radio broadcaster.
Translating into French and Creole and anchoring the lead-in to the telethon was 23-year old Gaelle Alexis, who was rescued by her husband after spending 10 hours under rubble. Outside, a crowd of Haitians gathered to hear the broadcast from a speaker mounted on a truck by Haitian technicians. A video of Gaelle Alexis anchoring the Telethon from Port au Prince can be viewed below.
“It’s important that the people of Haiti know that the world is with them, that people around the globe are deeply concerned by what has happened, and that their concern is being turned into action,” said Mark Frohardt, Vice-President for Humanitarian Media at Internews, who also led the organization’s first-response team to Haiti.
Internews pursued the idea of the broadcast within Haiti to ensure that Haitians themselves were able to hear the worldwide fundraiser organized by actor George Clooney and MTV Networks, and featuring such major entertainment stars as Bono, Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen and Brad Pitt, and numerous others.
Internews was among the first organizations to begin assessing the damage to local media after the earthquake earlier last week. Within a matter of days, it had brought in a team of six specialists and two portable broadcast units. The Internews team is also producing Nouvelles Utiles (‘News you can Use’ ) a daily emergency radio program that are being carried by at least 11 key radio stations in Haiti. The programs provide Haitians with potentially life-saving information.