T. HandyYéle Haiti
The tragedy of the past week left us, like so many around the world, speechless. While the full impact of the quake was slowly becoming clear, we sat here wishing there was more we could do to help.
Every once in a while opportunity drops right in your lap.
On Wednesday, January 13th, we happened to run across a particularly high-traffic site that had just been created. It didn't take long for us to realize who it was. "Yéle Haiti? Isn't that Wyclef's relief organization that we just saw on CNN?" Within minutes we had emailed the link around to the entire office and verified that this was the real deal.
We were hosting an organization that was on the ground, making an immediate impact towards recovery. We immediately reached out to the Yéle Haiti folks to see if there was anything we could do.
Apparently, on the first day of the earthquake, their previous web host had crashed under the strain of traffic brought on by people around the world looking to learn more and make a difference. The Yéle Haiti team looked to move to a platform that could handle this increased load and decided on Squarespace. They quickly redirected yele.org and our cloud infrastructure began immediately serving more than 10,000 uniques to it every hour. With the immediate traffic issues solved, Senior Designer Krystyn Heide jumped in to work with Yéle Haiti team on fine-tuning the design.
Previously, their site was static and difficult to update. As Yéle Haiti's mission is now shifting from long-term projects to immediate earthquake relief, the flexibility of Squarespace is critical in allowing multiple staffers to quickly edit content, whether in front of a computer or in the field via email or our iPhone app.
We are so excited to be able to help and sincerely ask that you do the same. Watch Yéle's live press conference from yesterday to hear more about their organization's recent efforts. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation, you can either text "YELE" to 501501 on your cell phone (a $5 donation will be charged to your next cell phone bill), or donate online.
Our hearts go out to everyone involved.
Reader Comments (9)
This is wonderful news for Squarespace. It's inspiring to see your incredibly polished platform being deployed for international relief efforts of this scale. You guys must be on cloud 9. Well deserved!
I'm new to Squarespace.
All I have to say is, "you guys rock, big time."
Not only is your product dynamite, your hearts are also in the right
place.
You are the kind of people I want to be associated with.
Best,
M. Fisher
As a customer of Squarespace, I really appreciate that ! I agree with Mr Fisher, you completely rock !
As I was creating a Help Haiti section of my website, a few days ago as the site design for Yele was updated, I looked to see where this fresh, functional design was created. There it was... Squarespace. I was unexpectedly proud of being connected with so many organizations of impact at one time. Reading your impression of the real time event of discovery adds to the meaning of what can actually be accomplished on a grand scale. On my website, I intend to make this section an ongoing historical storytelling account, later adding the Asian Tsumani and Katrina.
In this overwhelming experience, thanks to everyone for bringing out the best in ourselves.
First responce 1888 dry1out, our company understands the nature of life and catastrophies will happen. we deal with them fom day to day. We work 24 hours a day and we are here for your help.
My new website was extremely remarkable and has open doors for my new architecture/design business, not to mention the vast importance of networking and exploring new possibilities in other fields as well as keeping journals and tracking my business ventures and posting and creating blogs for those sites that want to exchange ideas on the design practice.
Hi, thank you very much. good job.
Gazete Oku
SquareSpace has indeed given a great design to the YeleHaiti Site. I believe we should try and help Haiti in any way we can. It can either be through donation, awareness, educating other people about their situation and needs.
Duncan Samuel
Business Scheduling Software
Rabin