Rebuilding Haiti: Samasource’s Part

Samasource’s engineering team (Eric Nguyen and Alex Onsager) travelled to Haiti at the end of April to establish our first microwork center in the country. Read about the earthquake, Samasource’s investment in Haiti, and our workers’ part in an innovative emergency SMS system.

The Aftermath

The human toll of the January 12th earthquake is staggering, with over 200,000 dead. As Alex and I travelled in Haiti, our everyday interactions would often belie this tragic fact. On the surface, people were doing their best to piece together their lives. Only on occasion would the recent tragedy break through to the surface. People we were speaking with would sometimes suddenly find themselves telling us about a lost child, neighbor, or lifelong partner.

The trauma is ongoing. A huge number of people have had to abandon their homes, since even buildings that are still standing can’t be trusted. Vast encampments have sprung up in all of the city’s open spaces. In the meantime, huge numbers of people have left Port-au-Prince, seeking the relative safely of neighboring towns.

Unfortunately, the Haitian government is struggling more than ever to serve its people. Aside from the vast neighborhoods that were leveled by the earthquake, there was nearly uniform destruction of all of the government institutions in the center of town. This included the national palace, supreme court building, government ministries, and police headquarters. Almost every institution struggling to serve Haitians today was reduced to rubble.

Samasource’s Part

The resource that remains in abundance in Haiti is human spirit. It is here that Samasource is investing in Haitian recovery. Our newest digital work center is being built by our service partner in Mirebalais, 1000 Jobs/Haiti. Mirebalais is one of those towns many Haitians have fled to. This underdeveloped region is a particularly important long-term focus for Samasource, because a stronger economy here will draw more people from the overcrowded city of Port-au-Prince. By bringing digital work to this area, Samasource is creating high-value jobs where they are needed most.

Alex and I spent four days in Mirebalais, helping 1000 Jobs/Haiti plan out its physical computing infrastructure and negotiate high-speed internet access for the town. We also taught, mentoring the team leaders and conducting classes for our new workers. Their new skills will be the foundation for the expanding numbers of digital tasks that our Haitian workers will be able to handle over the years.

Throughout the training, we were constantly impressed by the workers’ motivation to work towards improving their future. Despite the unreliable internet connection, they faced their computers all day hoping to catch the trickles of network activity that would allow them to complete a few tasks at a time. It was actually a challenge at times, convincing them to pause working so we could explain new exercises.

These are people with big ambitions. Conversations during breaks were filled with talk of dreams for the future. A number of our workers asked us how they might receive a scholarship to attend school in the United States. Alex has even received a Facebook friend request from one of the workers, followed shortly after by an inquiry of how to start building a website.

Mission 4636

Our Haitian partner hit the ground running with its first, critical mission. In the aftermath of the earthquake, a coalition of non-profit organizations (Mission 4636) established a free SMS shortcode (4636) that all Haitians could use to report their emergency needs. A sophisticated human processing chain translated and categorized the torrent of incoming messages and, where possible, located them on a map of the area. The many NGOs and foreign aid services in Haiti were then able to receive targeted reports of the situation on the ground and deploy services in real-time.

Samasource workers were brought in last month to handle this large volume of human processing tasks. They are uniquely qualified to do the Haitian-Creole-to English-translation. Mission 4636 has matured into a critical piece of infrastructure in Haiti, and is now evolving to handle post-crisis needs. Reports of earthquake-related emergencies were supplanted last month with calls for aid and security-related issues. Today, the service is beginning to be integrated with Haitian government services (police, traffic services, medical emergencies) that are getting back on their feet.

Our workers in Haiti are incredibly proud to be doing what they’re doing. Not only are they developing valuable skills, they are doing work that assists people in need. We at Samasource are, in turn, incredibly proud of them.