Despite Twitter Hoaxes, Haiti SMS Donations Hit $10m
The internet and technology have played a massive role in helping the Haitians effected by last week's earthquake. On Friday, the Red Cross revealed just how much cell phone donations have helped.
Over the last 7 days you've probably seen at least one status update, tweet, email or text message urging you to donate money to the people of Haiti by texting "Haiti" to a specified number, like 90999. In doing so you'll have donated $10 to the well known nonprofit, the American Red Cross. The Red Cross says that it has received more than $9 million in donations from over 900,000 cell phone users.
According to Reuters, the Mobile Giving Foundation is calling it a "mobile-giving record" for funds raised for a single cause. Jim Manis, chief executive officer of the foundation helping to manage cellphone donations, said it was receiving up to 10,000 text messages per second. The foundation said more than $11 million has been donated.
Cell phone providers Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have waived fees for sending donation texts, meaning 100 percent of the money goes to Haiti.
Unfortunately the power of social networking hasn't been exclusively used for good. A Twitter hoax, which later spread to Facebook, had everyone believing American Airlines was sending doctors and nurses to Haiti for free and UPS was shipping donations for free.
The message being passed around read:
"UPS is shipping anything under 50lbs for free to Haiti. You can send food clothes or shoes..and American Airlines is taking doctors and nurses to Haiti for free. Please call 212-697-9767. Spread the word...Red Cross needs Creole speaking volunteers for a 24hr phone bank. Call Mr. Wilfrid @ 305-776-6900 ASAP...Please Repost this Info."
American Airlines has since issued a statement clarifying that it is not sending medical personnel to Haiti for free. A spokesperson for AA told CNN that the airline couldn't actually fly any passengers to Haiti.
"We've incentivized our 62 million AAdvantage members to give cash to Red Cross and receive bonus miles from us," said Tim Smith. "We cannot fly any passengers to Haiti at this time and our efforts on the humanitarian front are as described above."
CNN reports that American and American Eagle last Wednesday sent three planes carrying 30,000 pounds of water, food and other nonperishable goods for its more than 100 employees who work at the airport in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and for assistance in Port-au-Prince hospitals.
Three more relief flights were planned from Puerto Rico to Haiti on Thursday, and an additional three for Friday.
UPS has donated $1 million to Haiti. This includes $500,000 in cash and up to $500,000 worth of services. The services will be divided between the American Red Cross, CARE, UNICEF and other organizations assisting with long-term relief.
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LOL! Twitter FAIL!
If you live in Portland Maine my punk band Big Meat Hammer (which is maine's oldest punk band 20 years now) will do a benefit for the cause at Flask Lounge on Sat.Jan30th 4PM
No Cover just leave donations and all will go to Haiti.
If you live in Portland Maine my punk band Big Meat Hammer (which is maine's oldest punk band 20 years now) will do a benefit for the cause at Flask Lounge on Sat.Jan30th 4PMNo Cover just leave donations and all will go to Haiti.
Great cause. I'd go but I'm a little far away!
Kinda makes you look at those companies to see what they ARE doing. That's not to say they weren't doing anything already, but imagine if they weren't and this hoax started. I'm not promoting the idea, just wondering if it would get a company to start donating if it wasn't already.
"We've incentivized our 62 million AAdvantage members to give cash to Red Cross and receive bonus miles from us," said Tim Smith. "We cannot fly any passengers to Haiti at this time and our efforts on the humanitarian front are as described above."
Huh? Could some 'merican please translate that for the rest of us?
Give people, GIVE!
Umm... I gave an Australian dude $40 once, does that count?
Typically, we see a headline about 1000+ deaths and we just shrud it off, but the Haiti incident actually has the people doing somehting about it, impressive.
Unfortunately, the damage was likely far into the billions, and our little amounts of donations won't even make a scratch at helping the people rebuild, but atleast it will help them survive.
I'm actually moved by all of this. Too bad it took 10,000+ deaths to do it. =(
I wish for only the best for these people. Think I'll go give a few bucks.
This means whoever flies this airline would most likely have an Advantage card. When they book flights, they rack up point. When you have enough points that could be a free flight, discount on hotels, ect... So, if they donate money with the Advantage card, they will receive bonus points without flying anywhere. Hope this helps.
The correct number for the Red Cross Creole speaking volunteers is 305-644-1200. My source was the Miami-Dade Red Cross directly. I never believe Twitter or Facebook, or just about any other source on the Internet unless it can be verified by the company that is making the offer. People shouldn't retweet or post offers unless they have verified it first. Don't be lazy, it only takes a second.