Haiti

1,000 radios were distributed in Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake. Launched immediately following the earthquake, Lifeline Energy partnered with IRD, National Democratic Institute (NDI) and local organisation Sosyete Animasyon Komunikasyon Sosyal (SAKS) to ensure Haiti’s vulnerable and displaced received vital, ongoing information to help rebuild their lives. IRD was allocated more than half of the radios. The US-based organisation began its Haiti operations on 18 January, six days after the earthquake struck, and has since provided water, food, sanitation, medicines and shelter material. Most of its relief work focused in the Leogane district, the area closest to the earthquake epicentre with more than 93% destruction. According to an IRD report, every resident of Leogane was sleeping outside in makeshift shelters following the 7.0 earthquake. IRD  set up 727 shelters to house families and Lifeline Energy’s radios were circulated among the shelters. NDI – an NGO that we have worked with in southern Sudan –  distributed the radios to people living in areas around citizen information centers throughout the country. One such area was Carrefour – an impoverished area near Port-au-Prince. A 52-year-old mother, Raymonde Saint Suren, said that the radio has proved to be an “all day long coping mechanism.” She said: “I listen to music all day and dance along with it. It helps me deal with the conditions that we now live in.”