Wyclef Jean Uses Twitter to Help Haitian Earthquake Victims

Musician Wyclef Jean is utilizing Twitter to gather support and raise awareness about the earthquake victims of Haiti. Twitter users responded by sending out tweets of donation amounts sent and sharing information from Wyclef's Twitter page.

Wyclef was born in Haiti and his appeals for support on Twitter continue as he makes his way to the disaster struck Haiti. Wyclef's page on Twitter is @Wyclef. "YELE mean " A CRY 4 FREEDOM". understand the words that u R gving voice 2 when u tweet," Wyclef tweeted to his over 1.3 million followers on Twitter. Thousands of users have retweeted his appeals for donations to the Yele Haiti Earthquake fund.

According to U.S. Geological Survey, (USGS) online, a 7.0 earthquake hit ten miles outside of Port-Au-Prince at 4:53 pm on Tuesday. The city continued to get hit by aftershocks after the quake. The destruction is massive. Vital buildings like hospitals have been crushed. Ann Curry of CNN tweeted, "Doctors Without borders says ALL hospitals in Haiti's Port au Prince area have either collapsed or been abandoned."

A statement by Wyclef, about the earthquake in Haiti appeared on his website:

"Haiti today faced a natural disaster of unprecedented proportion, an earthquake unlike anything the country has ever experienced.

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake - and several very strong aftershocks - struck only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince.

I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse. The over 2 million people in Port-au-Prince tonight face catastrophe alone. We must act now.

President Obama has already said that the U.S. stands 'ready to assist' the Haitian people. The U.S. Military is the only group trained and prepared to offer that assistance immediately. They must do so as soon as possible. The international community must also rise to the occasion and help the Haitian people in every way possible." Many people have already reached out to see what they can do right now. We are asking those interested to please do one of two things: Either you can use your cell phone to text "Yele" to 501501, which will automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund (it will be charged to your cell phone bill), or you can visit Yele.org and click on DONATE.