Haitian DJ Harnesses Airwaves for Aid Mission

(Jan. 19) — A week ago, Carel Pedre was hosting his morning radio show in Haiti, mixing music, telling jokes and making bets on who would win American Idol. One of the country’s most popular DJs, he hosted its version of the talent competition last year.

Now Pedre is sleeping in his parked car, with little fuel left, surviving on bread and water.

But you can still hear him on the radio.

In the week since the most devastating natural disaster in Haiti’s bedraggled history, a popular station there, Radio One, has had enough fuel to run its electricity generator a few hours a day. That’s allowed Pedre to grab the airwaves and transform his normally catchy music show into a lifeline for lonely earthquake survivors in need.

Haitian radio DJ Carel Pedre has been staying in his car outside the radio station and keeping people up to date on the airwaves and on Twitter. “We have an international phone line, so people can come in and use it to call relatives abroad to tell them they’re OK, and we broadcast it all,” Pedre told Sphere in a phone interview from outside the station’s headquarters in Petionville, near the capital. Airing emotional reunions and good news from survivors gives listeners hope that they too might find lost friends, he said. Aid groups also feed information to the station, which tells listeners where they can find clean water and food.

Pedre’s broadcasts have been the only hint of help for many Haitians after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure one week ago. Food and water are still scarce. Officials estimate as many as 200,000 people are dead and 1.5 million left homeless.

Even though his house was not destroyed in last week’s earthquake, Pedre prefers to sleep in his car outside the radio station, out of fear that more aftershocks could still wreck his home. Plus, there’s no electricity or water at home, and he feels safer near the office.

“I sleep in my car with some friends. We have four journalists at the station, and we wake up and do the shows,” the 29-year-old said. “Right now I’m eating bread and water, but maybe if I can find something else like rice, I’ll get it,” he said. “But my situation isn’t so different from what thousands of people are experiencing.”

“We still have no food or water. There’s been some change in the health situation, because there have been some more doctors helping and more hospital centers [resuming operations],” he said. “But the main thing is people still in the streets homeless, who need someone to take care of them.”

Hundreds of people have been sleeping on the same street where Pedre is parked. There’s safety in numbers, he said. But several young men have built a roadblock at the end of the street, piling up debris to keep out strangers who aren’t from the neighborhood.

“The streets are not completely safe. People are trying to protect themselves. But when you’re on a block with more than 500 people sleeping there, it’s safe because nobody can come and hurt you. Still, people are fighting when they want something… A lot of supermarkets collapsed, so people are going under the rubble to search for food. When they find something, people are fighting to get what they have,” he said. “People are hungry, they haven’t had water for six days.”

Pedre sent his 1-year-old daughter, who was born in the United States, away on an evacuation flight to the States, where he knew she’d be safe with family. But as station manager and chief engineer, he stayed behind to make sure all of his employees were safe. One of them, a radio presenter, is still missing.

“I decided to stay because there are a lot of people who need what I’m doing. It’s been six days now and there’s been no official source of information for the people,” said Pedre, who studied computer science.

Many Haitians normally listen on battery-powered radios, but after a week of listening all hours, desperate for news of loved ones or of aid convoys, those batteries are running out. Some who have fuel left in their cars run the engine just to turn on the car radio, Pedre said.

Like so many other Haitians, Pedre is running out of supplies. A bakery near his office is still selling bread, so he’s been buying as much as he can to share with friends. “But I’m running out of money so I don’t know how long that’ll last,” he said. Friends have been sharing whatever provisions they have. “We’re going to keep helping each other because we don’t know how long it’ll take for aid to reach us.”

After a week on the streets, families have carved out their own little spaces, with beds and cooking areas along sidewalks. During his phone interview with Sphere, Pedre described an elderly woman across the street using a tree branch to sweep away dust from her family’s little plot in the gutter. Despite trying to keep busy, “you see the sadness in people’s faces here,” Pedre said.

Asked about the future of his radio show, Pedre said: “Maybe I’ll bring back a bit of the music, slowly, in a different format giving people updates on the relief efforts. But the music, the jokes and that happy tone – that’s all gone now.”

Lauren Frayer Contributor AOL News