HAITI Media and Telecoms Landscape Guide - Infoasaid

130The IFRC used the TERA system to send out targeted awareness text messages topeople living in relevant geographic areas and automatic awareness messages inresponse to key words picked up in the text messages of people sending in inquiries.People could also send a text message to the short code *733 to enquire about anissue related to the humanitarian situation and receive an automated response.These responses were programmed to go out whenever a key word such as“cholera” was picked up in the incoming message.Haitians could also make a voice call a toll-free number to keep abreast of activitiesimplemented by the Red Cross and the Red Crescent to stop the spread of choleraand other diseases.The TERA system was used to send out over 70 million messages to more than onemillion Haitians in the first 18 months after the 2010 earthquake.Catherine Chazaly of the IFRC said in a report evaluating the Federation’scommunications campaign launched in response to the earthquake (BeneficiaryCommunications Evaluation – Haiti Earthquake Operation 2011) that the SMSmessages about weather alerts and health issues were the message that were mostappreciated.95% of people interviewed said they found the messages useful and 90% said theyhad changed something in their behaviour as a result of the information theycontained.However, Chazaly concluded that people still preferred, wherever possible, toreceive information face-to-face from a real person. She said:“People value face-to-face and oral communication most. A large majority ofpeople (44%) received information from the Red Cross through community workersand 35% said it was their preferred source of information. However, this medium iscostly and only reaches a small proportion of the population, so other tools shouldbe used to support community work such as sound trucks and SMS.”“I (Catherine Chazaly) learnt an essential word in Creole, which is also part of theHaitian way of life ‘Ti parle’: meaning discussion or chat. These two words describewell the importance in Haiti of engaging in dialogue and exchanging information fromhuman to human, mostly face-to-face, in order to communicate.”The IFRC recognised in its evaluation that new technology deployed in emergenciesin Haiti is best used in conjuction with traditional communication techniques.130