NetHope's Haiti Response

January 5, 2011

Dear Friends,

Next week marks the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti which took the lives of over 200,000 people and left over 1.5 million Haitians displaced in tents and other transitional housing. It’s predictable that there will be a lot of news about what’s not working in Haiti. While a lot of good work has been done, Haiti still suffers from political instability, unfulfilled donor commitments, cholera outbreak and a painfully slow rebuilding process.

NetHope member agencies and several of our partners have been operating in Haiti for many years. Our team is committed to support the Haitian people over the long haul—no matter what the obstacles. We must remember that there are also many bright spots including the amazing resiliency that defines how every day Haitians live and adapt.

Accomplishments

In the wake of some enormous challenges this past year, the NetHope community, which includes all of you, can stand very tall for the work that we have done together. Here is just a partial list of accomplishments:

1. In the hours and days following the earthquake, NetHope partnered with Inveneo, our member agencies and the technology sector to restore communications capabilities for emergency responders. Communication is the lifeline of every major humanitarian response. Today the relief communications network is still operational and is self-sustaining with every dollar reinvested with our Haiti partners. Read more on our work in Haiti ›
2. With the huge influx of humanitarian staff, computing equipment was badly needed. The tech sector responded generously, delivering almost four tons of equipment. A special thanks goes to NetHope members CHF International and Catholic Relief Services for providing logistics services so that the equipment could be shipped in bulk and distributed by NetHope in-country. This spirit of collaboration was evident time and time again with NetHope members working together to support each other during this crisis.
3. The shortage of IT professionals in Haiti is a very real problem for both the humanitarian sector and private industry. The NetHope Academy selected 36 young Haitian computer science graduates and is providing them with internships to gain 'on the job' work experience, coupled with “boot camp” style classroom and self-study instruction around key need areas. The progress to date has been simply amazing thanks to the hardworking interns and their IT mentors from 14 different host organizations. We would like to thank our new friends at Voila Foundation and our longtime supporters Microsoft, Cisco and Accenture for their generous support of this important program.

The Road Ahead

Nothing has been easy in Haiti this past year, and the future will not be any easier. NetHope member organizations and our partners working in Haiti are committed for the long haul. NetHope will continue to focus on “game changing” technology interventions that leverage our unique interagency collaboration and public/private partnership model.

We still see connectivity and IT skill development as being core to our mission and crucial for the country's needs from an information technology infrastructure standpoint. To that end, we are:

1. Supporting our partner Inveneo in their broadband connectivity buildout for the under-served provinces outside of Port-au-Prince. We can help strengthen the business case for extending services to rural communities by aggregating our member agency connectivity requirements. Our member organizations benefit from better bandwidth at lower prices, and surrounding communities are able to connect to a whole array of information technology enabled services.
2. We remain committed to building the IT skills capacity in Haiti through our innovative NetHope Academy internship programs. The country needs qualified IT professionals to support the long-term use of information and communications technologies for health, education, commerce, government, conservation, tourism and more. We already have commitments from Microsoft, Cisco and Accenture to continue their support of the NetHope Academy program into Fall 2011.

Learn more about we responded to the Haiti Earthquake with the help of Inveneo:

The Future is Near

We are already seeing our partners and our members begin to innovate with proven technologies to support the rebuilding of Haiti. Some examples of great work that is already underway include:

• Mercy Corps and Voila partnering to deliver mobile banking services for the poorest of the poor in Haiti. Read more ›
• Red Cross and Voila delivering an SMS alerting system that provides lifesaving Cholera health information to “at risk” Haitians. Discover more about the system ›
• IDB and Microsoft partnering with the Haitian government to deliver an e-government platform that provides secure communications solutions and essential information repositories. Find out more about this partnership ›
• World Vision rolling out an innovative solution for capturing information in remote field locations called Last Mile Mobile Solution. This program has tremendous potential for helping humanitarian agencies gather and report on information from the field. Learn more about the program ›

How Can You Help?

There are two areas where we are focusing our efforts:

1. NetHope has a whole array of scalable solutions to support health, education, conservation and economic development in Haiti. If you would like to learn more about how to join forces with us in any of these areas, please contact me ›
2. The Haiti earthquake has demonstrated the importance of investment in Emergency Preparedness. NetHope and select technology partners are coming together to invest in this high-payoff area. “An ounce of prevention IS worth a pound of cure," so please consider becoming part of a broader Global Emergency Preparedness program that NetHope is leading.

As always, we want to thank you for your support of NetHope's activities. NetHope, our member agencies and our public and private sector partners have made a positive impact in Haiti this past year. We are committed for the long haul and look forward to your continued support.

Kind Regards,

Bill Brindley

William A. Brindley
Chief Executive Officer
Executive Director
NetHope
www.NetHope.org