Disaster Volunteer Earns TeenNick HALO Award

Nov. 12, 2010 - PRLog -- WASHINGTON, DC / BOYDTON, VA, Humanity Road Disaster Volunteer Herold Charles, 18, Miami, Fla. has earned his HALO.  The 6’8” Haitian originally from Jacmel has been awarded with a Teen Nick HALO Award.  His volunteer work for Humanity Road responses in Haiti and Chile are just two examples of his commitment to community service that led to his selection for the prestigious award.  Be sure to watch Herold’s story when the second annual TeenNick HALO Awards premieres Friday, Dec. 10, at 8:00 p.m. (ET) on TeenNick, followed by an encore on Nick at Nite at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT).

Herold speaks five languages.  And in the days immediately following the January earthquake, he assisted people from around the world who needed help getting messages in and out of Haiti.  He also translated live streaming tweets to help people who had urgent needs in the aftermath of both the Haiti 7.0 magnitude earthquake in January and the Chile 8.8 quake in February.

"Herold is an extraordinary young man.  He was faced with a very difficult situation and chose to make a difference.  He taught me that when we are faced with something tragic what we do in those moments and the moments that follow it, affects not who we are as a person but who we are as a global community.” says Catherine Graham, Vice President for Humanity Road.

Humanity Road, Inc. is the first of its kind Digital Disaster Relief Charitable organization. Their size and virtual presence allows them to be fast and effective in communicating with the public before, during and after disaster.  Gisli Olafsson, Team Lead for the Icelandic Search and Rescue team in Haiti said "The volunteers of Humanity Road are doing a superb job of providing useful and actionable advice to disaster affected communities, both before and after disasters strike."

Learn more about Humanity Road and its volunteers at http://humanityroad.org or visit our event response pages for Haiti at http://helphaitiheal.wordpress.com and Chile at http://helpchileheal.wordpress.com.

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Humanity Road is the first digital disaster relief organization dedicated to educate the public before, during and after disaster on how to survive, sustain and reunite with loved ones.

For search and rescue operations, specialists are called to a site to locate missing persons. These rescue workers are specially trained and equipped to locate and rescue people trapped by debris. Much in a similar way, Humanity Road volunteers are trained and equipped on searching information online and confirming facts during a disaster. They locate people who need aid and educate those who need aid on where they may find assistance and those who provide aid on where people need assistance.

Humanity Road volunteers actively monitor many disaster alert services and monitoring tools. The volunteers also monitor mainstream media news reports, news blogs as well as disaster related conversations and posts made in social networking and other Internet based applications and forums.