Social media lessons from the Haiti crisis

When an earthquake of catastrophic magnitude struck Haiti on 12th January this year, Médecins Sans Frontierès (MSF) was quick to realise that this disaster was no ordinary humanitarian crisis.

MSF had been working in the slums of Port-au-Prince for 20 years and, with a strong presence of 400 staff, was one of the largest humanitarian organisations present in the country. However staff and patients were now missing and people were turning up in the thousands to what was left of their medical facilities.