30.11.10

...Twitter's hope



Twitter has developed a corporate responsibility program named HOPE140 in an effort to be “ a force for good”. Among others HOPE 140 aims to help people of Haiti. Months just after the devastating earthquake, Haiti now faces another crisis: the outbreak of cholera.

Social media are excellent tools that can contribute much during crisis periods such this. The immediate, direct and open exchange of information, proves to be of great value, as it provides vital information to people in danger and updates to the rest members of the worldcommunity.

In the Haiti case, with the support from Voila, one of Haiti’s leading wireless communication providers, local citizens were encouraged to follow @kwawouj’s cholera updates via SMS, even if they didn’t have a Twitter account of their own. Since the launch of this service, thousands of people received important Tweets related to the cholera crisis, which in many cases were vital for their survival! The procedure followed, in order victims to be connected with resources can be seen here!

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