COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES IMPROVED IN HAITI

Haiti was the subject of intense, international media interest in the days and weeks following the earthquake, and the Haitian Ministry of Culture and Communications fielded the vast majority of those inquiries, conducting as many as 40 interviews a day.

Since that time, media focus on Haiti has slowed considerably. International media coverage now consists of periodic update stories, which are generally negative regarding the competence of the Haitian government, the level of recovery that has been made and the upcoming threat of rainy season. Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, Haitian Minister of Haitian Culture and Communications, requested the assistance of FAVACA to provide a volunteer to teach her staff how to craft a strategic communication plan to improve the Ministry's effectiveness in sharing information internally with the people of Haiti and externally with the international media.

FAVACA in collaboration with the US Embassy in Haiti was able to enlist Michelle Ubben, partner and chief operating officer of Ron Sachs Communications, one of the top independent public relations firms in Florida and one of the top 100 in the U.S., to volunteer her expertise in working with the Minister and her staff to craft a strategic communication plan. Ubben traveled to Haiti April 25-29, 2010. Despite remarkable challenges, including the need to operate the Ministry out of a series of tents on the perimeter of a tent community, the Ministry possesses a number of assets in their continued effort to inform Haitians and the international community on the progress being made toward recovery.