Millions of people around the world have tuned in to the “Hope for Haiti Now” two-hour telethon as more than 130 celebrities have come together to raise funds for the devastated Caribbean nation today.
One of the first to make a plea for funds was Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean who spoke of his pain at carrying bodies to the cemetery in his homeland and finding there were not enough graves to bury mothers, fathers and children with the dignity and grace that they deserved.
“Right now we can see the second wave of this disaster coming,” he said, pleading with people to donate what they could.
“My country’s in great pain and I know we can help,” he said before speaking Creole to the audience watching the telethon in Haiti.
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“From the ashes we shall rise,” Jean said.
Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney was central in establishing the telethon, one of the biggest since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, AFP reported.
The event was being broadcast across every major U.S. television network along with other web sites such as YouTube, My Space, and celebrity news sites such as TMZ and OK! Magazine.
Haiti is “a tragedy that reaches across all borders, all boundaries,” Clooney said, and “at the core of every religion is the belief that we take care of one another.”
“The Haitian people need our help. They need to know they are not alone,” he told the international audience.
Star acts lined up for the telethon included Madonna, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay and Jennifer Hudson, who will unveil “a song you never heard her sing before,” Clooney said.
Clooney says he will donate one million dollars of his own money.
Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio, announced Thursday that he would also give one million dollars to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, while Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated one million dollars earlier to help aid group MSF’s operations in Haiti.
Friday’s telethon had few parallels over the last decade, said Charity Navigator, an organization monitoring charities across the United States.
The telethon held in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks against New York and the Pentagon, also hosted by Clooney, raised about $150 million.
Another big telethon took place after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, but that was broadcast only on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and less major channels. About $40 million was raised.
NBC and its affiliated networks broadcast a telethon in aid of victims of the Asian tsunami in 2005, raising $18 million.