N-Map is seeking your help in an urgent effort to ensure that hundreds of millions of dollars in aid raised for Haiti is effectively translated into tangible help for Haitians who are suffering after the earthquake.  We are producing several short videos to bring the voices of Haiti’s earthquake victims to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations on a very tight timeline.  We are asking your help to raise $5,000 for the project.  Please make a donation on our website (click on the “donate now” button), and see below for more details.  This is $5,000 that has the potential to help improve the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.

Our partners, Partners in Health and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, are deeply concerned that the masses of Haitians displaced by the earthquake are still not receiving essential aid, like food, water, and shelter from the rains.  Most of the Internally Displaced Persons camps are self-organized by Haitians, and much of the aid being delivered to those camps is from smaller groups from the Dominican Republic, the United States, and elsewhere.

Many Haitians have received little or no aid from big international groups, despite their having raised hundreds of millions of your dollars.  Conditions in the camps are horrible.  Here is one account from an email that we received from a doctor working at these camps:

“conditions in PAP are horrendous.  worse than could be described by words or a medical / health POV…   [the] world doesn’t care enough for the 100s of thousands of haitians who are facing these dangerous conditions.  rain is falling.  many / most are not even protected from the rain.  sleeping under cotton sheets, not even plastic.  food and water very insecure. sanitation is abysmal and inhumane.  forget about sophisticated things like healthcare, etc.”

N-Map’s Intervention

Partners in Health and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti are hoping to bring more accountability to the aid and reconstruction effort through a hearing at the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights on March 23, and advocacy at a United Nations donors’ conference on March 31.

N-Map is sending a team to Haiti to document the situation at the camps, through the eyes of local community leaders and the Partners in Health doctors who are assisting them.  We are creating video to submit as evidence at the Commission hearing, and to educate the United Nations and the public on the situation in Haiti.  We are then making a second set of videos to educate the United Nations on the situation in Port au Prince, to persuade international donors to take action to make sure that aid starts flowing more quickly, efficiently, and fairly.

Out Request

We have an incredible team of volunteers, most of whom have experience working in Haiti as relief workers or medical professionals after the earthquake.  We are attempting to make these movies, from scratch, in less then two weeks — including organizing, travel, shooting, and editing.  We think that we can pull this off for about $5000 in expenses — that’s $5000 that has the potential to help ensure hundreds of millions in aid get to the people that need it most.

Perhaps most importantly, we are not just another video crew.  We are working closely with local community leaders and Partners in Health doctors, acting as advocates, not as filmmakers — our work is deeply respectful of the heroic work of Haitian organizers to do what the can to help their people in the midst of this crisis.  Our goal is bring the voices of the Haitian people and grassroots leaders to the Inter-American Commission and the United Nations.

Please make your donation at our website, or send a check to Adam Stofsky, New Media Advocacy Project, 75 Henry Street # 28H, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

Double Your Impact

N-Map is fortunate to have receive a generous match donation (note that his was offered for N-Map generally, not for this Haiti project).  We are looking for several donations of $2,500 or $5,000.  Up to $10,000 of donations of this size will be matched — this is a great opportunity to double your impact! Please contact Adam at (718) 564-9839, if you are considering such a donation, to discuss the mechanics of the match.

As a final word, I leave you with some samples of video from our Haiti team.  I hope these videos will illustrate the exception quality of our volunteers’ work, particularly given the tightness of our budgets.

First, a video made by our shooter, Sandy Berkowitz, who is both a Paramedic and a docuentary filmmaker.  Sandy made this movie while working in Haiti for NYC Medics:

Finally, a movie that N-Map produced for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, helping support their Health and Human Rights in Haitian Prisons project with Partners in Health: