Videoconferencing Reunions with Loved Ones in Haiti

New technology connects loved ones across miles in the wake of Haiti's devastating earthquake

by Mark Dagostino
April 8, 2010

These days, many of us video-chat daily with coworkers, loved ones and lovers alike on our PC's, Macs and laptops without so much as a second thought. It's hard to remember a time (not so long ago) when the concept of a "videophone" was pure science fiction — something seen in movies, or set up in fake displays of the "future" at Disney's EPCOT Center.

As numb as we sometimes are to the daily miracles of technology all around us, every once in a while something happens to remind us just how awe-inspiring such technological advances can be when put to good use.

Miami's Little Haiti isn't exactly known as the hotbed of modern science, but that's exactly where one of these awe-inspiring displays turned up this week, when the Miami Dolphins/Sun Life Stadium Haiti Relief Fund and the University of Miami Global Institute/Project Medishare joined forces to unite Haitian family members for the first time since the earthquake ravaged Haiti. They did so using a brand new videoconferencing platform: Cisco Telepresence. (A system that is currently in use at Sun Life Stadium.)

"The partnership between the Dophins, Sun Life and Cisco highlight how the technological innovations we have made at Sun Life Stadium can have a community impact beyond the playing field," Miami Dolphins CEO Mike Dee said in a press release.

Added Dr. Barth Green, Chair of the University of Miami's Global Institute and President of Project Medishare for Haiti, "The ability to place families separated by miles is something very special for all of us ... and is an example of the importance of communications, which we take so much for granted in our daily lives."

Thanks to videoconference studios set up in Little Haiti and Port-au-Prince, dozens of families are expected to be reunited this week alone.

In [one emotional video clip], Barbara Adrien, an injured patient at University of Miami Hospital who was flown from Haiti to Miami after the quake, and her sister Roseandre Adrien are reunited via real-time, life-size video with their two cousins, aunt and uncle for the very first time since the quake struck in January.

Source: conferencingnews.com