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Pat Dooris January 13, 2010 http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Relief-organizations-rely-on-Facebook-Twitter-for-rapid-response-81409407.html Source Publication:  KGW-TV

PORTLAND, Ore. -- At Tigard-based Medical Teams International, bags were prepared Wednesday for the first team of disaster relief response volunteers heading to Haiti. Upstairs, a young woman named Chiqui Flowers sits in a small cubicle, monitoring the organization's website and social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
She knows many are following.

“People are connected to social media through the web site, their phones," she said, pointing out her smart-phone apps for both social feeds, which connect the agency and its donors on a personal level.

The speed of information accessibility dictates donor support, says Medical Teams International spokeswoman Marlene Minor. And no single agency, network or news organization can spread the word like Twitter.

“How soon they can donate -- how soon they can volunteer -- and ... how soon they can pray for the situation," are all based on information's spread, Minor said, noting that Medical Teams is a Christian organization.

A chart maps out the geographical reach of Medical Teams' donors. The graph reflects how news of the Haitian quake spread in relation to donors. Wednesday's donor amount was 10 times the norm. More than $35,000 was contributed.

Social media is so important that Mercy Corps, the Portland-based international relief agency, has hired a full-time coordinator. Leah Hazard's primary job might get others fired: she Tweets and Facebooks the day away. But her time is money - and the agency's success depends on her social reach.

“Social media is incredibly valuable during disasters because we reach out to our immediate supporters and followers and they're able to reach out to their networks and really leverage their networks," Hazard said.

And it's working. Jeremy Barnicle, Mercy Corps vice president of marketing, said the agency raised a half-million dollars over 24 hours for Haiti. And they did it mainly online.

Barnicle says social media is crucial to selling the public on the need to help.

“We can’t respond the way we do if the public doesn’t respond with donations," Barnicle said. "Getting those pictures out quickly, helping people understand how serious this is -- taking the mystery out of it and making it real -- that's where social media is huge. It’s absolutely huge."

Both organizations are listed with secure donation pages by clicking here

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, 28 July 2010 – Early each morning, queues start to form outside the Princess Christian Memorial Hospital in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Pregnant women, mothers and young children wait patiently. Health-care workers trawl the lines for priority cases that need immediate attention.

N'DJAMENA, Chad, 28 June 2010 – On the inside walls of one of the centres for former child soldiers in N'Djaména, the capital of Chad, are images that start with the horrors of war and gradually become those of anticipated hopes and dreams.

NEW YORK, USA, 29 June 2010 – UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lionel 'Leo' Messi, one of the biggest stars in football, has recorded a new public service announcement to raise awareness about children's rights and promote equity.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, 28 June, 2010 – Mashura Mamakhanova's thumb and index finger seem impossibly large as they caress her daughter's tiny hand in the incubator where the newborn sleeps. Born 10 weeks premature, the baby weighs just 900 grammes, but doctors at the Perinatal Centre in Andijan, Uzbekistan had no choice but to induce her birth.

NEW YORK, 28 June 2010 – UNICEF has been honoured for its coverage of the challenges facing Palestinian children in 'Protecting Childhood', a short film that recently won the Award of Excellence in the 2010 Communicator Awards, which are sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts.

SABANG, Indonesia, 13 July 2010 – Mohamed Safrina, 22, has never suffered from malaria, but he knows it's a dangerous illness. However, the labourer from Sabang, an island district off the north-west coast of Indonesia, is terrified of needles and a little apprehensive of the gloved nurse kneeling beside him.

ISTANBUL, Turkey, 30 June 2010 – While Turkey has made significant progress in reducing the number of out-of-school girls in recent decades, the number of girls in school continues to decline sharply by the fifth and sixth grades.

NAIROBI, Kenya, 12 July 2010 – Muna Ali Hirsi, 24, is a vibrant and motivated life-skills mentor who works with young people aged 12 to 21 in north-west Somalia (Somaliland).

NEW YORK, USA, 9 July 2010– UNICEF is delighted to announce the appointment of international figure-skating star Yuna Kim as its newest Goodwill Ambassador. In a special video messagemarking her appointment. Ms. Kim thanks donors who have supported a cause she herself holds dear: UNICEF's earthquake-relief efforts in Haiti.

LIBREVILLE, Gabon, 7 July 2010 – On a recent trip to Gabon, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with children living in a child-protection centre supported by UNICEF in Angondgé, a neighbourhood of Libreville, the capital.

DAMASCUS, Syrian Arab Republic,6 July 2010 – Lulls in conversation with 16-year-old Iraqi refugee Gailan are soon filled with the gentle inhale-exhale of sleep. Outside, the Damascus streets are silent, except for the shuffling of those woken early by the intense morning heat.

NEW YORK, USA, 30 June 2010 – Arcy Nino Ortonio, now 19, is in his second year of college in the Philippines, taking courses in maritime studies so that he can work on a ship as a deck officer and move up the ranks. But less than 15 years ago, when Arcy was just a young child, he worked two jobs to help pay his grade-school fees and his future was uncertain.

NAMUSHAKA, Zambia, 2 July 2010 – More than 600 km from Zambia's capital, Lusaka, the local school's sandy football pitch is being converted to a soccer fan park. Football fever is hitting even the most remote villages in Africa as the FIFA World Cup is played for the first time on the continent.

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, 1 July 2010 – All along the Alisher Navoi Street, the scene is similar from house to house. Some of the buildings are just charred walls. Some have collapsed completely. Others bear bullet holes from intense gunfire.

NEW YORK, USA, 29 June 2010 – As part of his official visit to New York this past weekend, Prince Harry of the United Kingdom visited the Emergency Operations Centre at UNICEF headquarters to see how the organization operates strategically during global crises.

ESTCOURT, South Africa, 29 June 2010 – Slightly built Nokwanda Mchunu, 12, buried her head in her hands every time someone asked her a question. Her participation in a recent UNICEF-supported photography workshop here looked like it would be limited.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 30 June 2010 – Jeanne (not her real name) looks lovingly at her baby daughter Marie and carefully covers her cot with a mosquito net. She is sitting in the living room of a relative's home in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, in the heat of the afternoon. For Jeanne, the birth of Marie in May was an extraordinary event.

BAMYAN, Afghanistan, 12 July 2010 – "This place is needed in Bamyan like water in the desert," said Dr. Hamed Nazim, head of Bamyan Provincial Hospital. "In the past, not enough care was taken of mothers. This will change now."

NEW YORK, USA, 9 July 2010 – Kent Page left New York for Port-au-Prince on 20 January, just over a week after the earthquake that shattered Haiti's most densely populated areas – and the lives of its most vulnerable children. He had been asked to leave his UNICEF headquarters post for a month-long assignment as the agency's chief media spokesperson in the Haitian capital.