A little over three months ago, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) asked me and a few colleagues to help them look at the lessons that can be learned from the work of reconstruction and rebuilding lives that were done following the Tsunami. Little did we realise at that time that another 200,000 people will perish in a sixty-second disaster in one of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti, while we were still trying to understand how future disaster risks could be reduced for people likely to face the threats of disasters. What has happened in this poorest nation in the western hemisphere is no less calamitous than the Tsunami which killed over 230,000 across five countries. However, I find it heartening to note some interesting departures from the way international community, governments and the media in particular in responding to the suffering caused by this disaster.
After the Tsunami which shocked us all into a stupor when the media was beaming out gory pictures of giant waves swallowing up whatever and whoever came in its path, the governments, aid agencies and humanitarian organisations assured the survivors and the displaced that all will be taken care of, and they would be back on their feet within a year or so. We now know – as did most of the agencies back then – that it took at least 3-5 years’ of hard work to bring people back to some semblance of normal lives. Yet such was the power of the media hype and the emotional reaction to the shock and horror of the Tsunami that everyone got carried away and made promises which, rationally speaking, no amount of funds could deliver within one year as was promised.
After the Haiti quake, we saw a more mature portrayal of the crisis that was unfolding: the catastrophic destruction and damages aside, we also saw the challenges in providing any rescue or relief operations, the lack of infrastructure for providing relief and why aid was slow in reaching out to the affected communities. Just a week after the earthquake, several big donor agencies including the World Bank and the UN proclaimed that it would take nearly ten years, if not more, to rebuild the country.
Has this made people less generous to donate to the cause of the Haitians? Going by the trend in Europe and America, this does not seem to be the case. Although Haiti may break the highest-ever funds raised for Tsunami, the DEC in the UK has already raised over £65 million, and is still counting even after three weeks into the appeal. And in the US, you will be overwhelmed by the extensive range of methods being deployed for fundraising for Haiti, right from celebrity events, breakfast parties, product sales to collection tins and appeals on the cab you are travelling in. Public generosity hasn’t waned despite the tardy response and the challenges in delivering aid that have been brought home to the donors. A vital role played in this positive transformation has been that of the social media, the facebookers, twitters, Diggers and Myspacers who have told numerous stories and eye-witness accounts of the situation as it started unfolding from day one. I have been following dozens of facebookers and twitters – all individuals, ordinary citizens, committed humanitarians and charity workers– and it amazes me to see how mature the understanding of the complexity of the situation is, something quite simply was missing for weeks and months after the Tsunami disaster.
Another interesting development I have seen after the Haiti earthquake is the use of social media for social marketing. The DEC has twittered its way to growing a following of over 2,500 from none four weeks ago, and has over 16,000 fans on facebook, all helping to spread its message. The beauty of the social media is that it costs you no cash to grow a support base, unlike direct mails or print and audio-visual media.
Charities and humanitarian organisations have not so far utilised the power of social media fully for their marketing purposes. But after the Haiti experience, I think this is going to grow big in charity marketing.
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