When we began this project on January 12th, our primary desire was to help connect ourselves and our friends with survivors of the Haitian earthquake.

Since then, many things have happened.

Google.com the world’s best company for compiling database lists and maps, and beextra.org a face recognition software company were contacted by the US State Department and asked to participate in the relief effort. Their desire was to create a databank where people could find their loved ones and learn their status. A monumental task, pre-earthquake, even more daunting now.

Not knowing this project existed, we launched our own database, in which we were compiling names of those who had been found so that others could see them and have peace of mind.

We were contacted by a volunteer who was using the telephone to connect with Haitians on the ground and who was having a modicum of success, at least when the phone calls went through. So we incorporated this step into our process.

All the while we have been tweeting and retweeting in order to spread the word as far and as wide as is humanly possible.

Yesterday, Tina Brooks, one of our founders, attended a local community meeting and met with the local Diaspora in Montreal, to plan what would be done next.

Volunteers have amassed to work from a call center in St. Michel or from their home computers and have begun a massive enterprise. Bring Haiti home.

Volunteers are collecting the calls for help finding loved ones and acting upon them. With the names of possible victims, the information that the Red Cross requires to list them and a recent photo, if possible, volunteers are able to examine Google maps to see if the possible victim is in a safer area or in a heavily damaged are. If the former, we are discovering that chances are the failure to communicate with said loved one is because of the massive communications failure as a direct result of the earthquake. When the latter, we attempt telephone contact. If that succeeds, then we list the possible victim in the Google Database, which in turn is feeding the Red Cross database. The photographs when uploaded are being cross-referenced to the bank of photographs in the database and facial recognition software is being used to help identify people. When we fail to make contact, we list the person as missing, desiring new info and if the person gets found, then their searcher is notified.

In this way we have found many people and many more will be found.

We are in need of volunteers to help in this massive effort. So if you can spare some time, we ask that you participate.

Directors:

Tina Brooks – Founder -  @Pepperfire

Alexander Blom – Marketing Manager – @AlexBlom

Sally White – Volunteer Coordinator -  @highlandwhite

Huge Thanks to:

Lucas Mace – Logo Designer – @LucasMace

Paulo Jorge Iap Correia – Database Assistance – @paulo_iap