February 12, 2009

Internews Launches Emergency Media Fund for Disasters and Conflicts

MacArthur Foundation Challenge Grant Enables Local Media to Provide Lifesaving Information in Emergencies

With a three-year, $500,000 challenge grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Internews Network has established a fund to enable local media to provide vital news and information to survivors of humanitarian disasters and other crises.

"Internews’ global reach and experience make it possible for us to respond immediately in emergency situations," said David Hoffman, President of Internews Network. "With the generous and far-sighted support of the MacArthur Foundation, we will be able to help more people by providing the timely and accurate information that is so essential during a disaster." (More)

Update on Internews' Gaza Response: Radio Broadcasts Provide Vital Humanitarian Information to Gazans

"It was darkness, no electricity, and the only thing that connected us to the world was a small radio. We were more than forty people, men, women, and children sleeping in the living room, listening to the radio and moving the tuner from one station to another; no one could sleep." So said Um Ibrahim, a mother of eight living in Khan Younis, south of Gaza City. Along with forty other relatives, Ibrahim and her family had taken shelter in her brother Abu Ali’s house after the first night of the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza in December. (More)

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