Within minutes of learning that his native country had been struck by a massive earthquake, Jean – whose uncle is the Hatian ambassador to the United States – sent a message to his followers using his Twitter account, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Please text ‘Yéle’ to 501501 to donate $5 to Yéle Haiti,” the musician tweeted to nearly 1.4 million fans. “Your money will help with relief efforts. They need our help.”
Response to the plea has been astounding, with Yéle Haiti raising more than $1 million by midnight Wednesday through text messages alone.
In addition, traffic to Yele.org, the Web site for the foundation set up by Jean in 2005 to “build global awareness for Haiti and help drive transformation through education, sports, the arts and environment,” has been so great it crashed several times yesterday.
Jean’s request for assistance from the public has gone viral, thanks in large part to other celebrities, as well as fans, spreading the word via Twitter, Facebook and Craigslist.
As a result, Wendy Harman, social media manager for the Red Cross, told CNN the organization’s own text messaging campaign – which asks that the public donate $10 by texting the world ‘Haiti’ to 90999 – has raised more than $3 million.
“It’s shattered any record that we’ve seen with mobile giving before,” Harman said.
For more information on how you can help with Hatian relief efforts, visit Yele.org or American.Redcross.org.