Haiti: What now?

It didn't take 24 hours for the news to spread around the world about the massive earthquake that hit Haiti late Tuesday, January 12, 2010, killing hundreds of people and wounding many more. The quake, measuring 7 on the Richter scale, has caused widespread damage in and around the capital Port-au-Prince, leaving a large number of people homeless and hungry, including UN officials, U.S. government representatives and international peace advocates.

Moments ago, President Obama pledged support and aid to Haiti, who has faced great devastation and catastrophe for decades. As you've also noticed, SMS donations are being advertised via social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Both short codes in use right now, 501501 and 90999, are tracing back to registered twitter accounts and are considered authentic at this point, based on the Associated Press. 90999 is associated with the red cross (@redcross), 501501 is associated with Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) - Haitian-born singer and founder of Yéle Haiti Foundation.

Twitter has been covered with retweets of the message today. Hundreds are passing his message on by the minute, and it appeared the website for Yele had crashed under the traffic. Additionally, a number of companies set up services to allow donations to be send via SMS message. The approach is pretty simple. You text a message identifying your cause (e.g. "HAITI") to a special short code configured by the recipient.

A "short code" is a 5 or 6 digit number configured to receive your message pretty much like a regular phone number. These short codes are frequently advertised via twitter in messages. One thing that doesn't fit into the twitter message is that the cost of the donation will be billed to your phone bill. Typically $5 or $10. Legitimate providers of this service appear to limit you to one donation per day.

Here's other ways you can help:

If you have family in Haiti:

· Call the Emergency Hotline for the familes of UN staff members in Haiti at 212-963-4139

· For information or inquiries about U.S. citizens in Haiti, call 888-407-4747. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, call 202-501-4444.

Ways to donate:

· The people of Haiti need food assistance as quickly as possible to prevent hunger worsening the misery already caused by the disaster. Click here to donate and help the World Food Programme provide food assistance to the survivors. They are already in the country to ensure this assistance is managed properly.

· CNN has compiled a list of relief organizations seeking donations in order to deliver vital aid and logistical expertise to Haiti.

· National Public Radio is also putting a list called "Haiti – Some Ways to Help."

· Please text ‘Yele’ to 501501 to donate $5 to YELE HAITI. Yéle Haiti Foundation, an organization that uses music, sports and the media to reinforce projects that are making a difference in education, health, environment and community development in his native Haiti.

· Please text 'HAITI' to '90999' and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross.

Volunteer:

· Read Idealist’s article about disaster volunteering, published by their Volunteer Resource Center—remember that you can help the victims without even leaving your own community.

Additional resources:

· Visit ReliefWeb’s page on the Haiti earthquakes for continuing coverage of the disaster response. To follow Spanish language news, click here for Univision.com's updates.

· If you're a Twitter user, follow a list such as CNN's @BreakingNews/haiti-quake list or The New York Times' @NYTimes/haiti-earthquake

· To follow Spanish language news, click here for Univision.com's updates.