Photos: Anne Poulsen/IMS

James Felix was the only one inside the radio station Force FM in Leogane, when the earthquake hit. He was in the middle of broadcasting an emission on the upcoming elections and had left the studio to go to another room. Report from Haiti

When the earthquake struck, James Felix looked up and saw three stories come crashing down over his head. Luckily, he was close to the exit and managed to make a narrow escape. But his shirt which got caught in the rubble, is still there.

On a trip to assess the damages of media institutions outside the capitol Port-au-Prince in Haiti, and to provide basic assistance to  journalists in precarious situations, the IMS team comprising Anne Poulsen and Robert Shaw met 29-year old James Felix in Leogane. A journalist for nine years and the general director of the radio station Force FM in Leogane, James Felix is also the correspondent for Planète Creole in Port-au-Prince and has won several awards for his work.

Today he lives on the street with his family and is unable to work.

The building from where 14 staff members used to broadcast Force FM was completely destroyed on 12 January. James Felix was able to save the broadcaster, a computer, a hard disk and one microphone out of four. However, he does not know if the equipment still works. In order to be back up and running again, James Felix lists two fundamental needs: An antenna and spaces to operate the radio.

His family’s house in the center of Leogane was also completely destroyed. They lived 14 family members in the house. Now they all sleep outdoors in the middle of the street on the main square of the town.

James Felix takes care of his family. He is in charge of security for the family and this implies sleeping outside with a gun at his side. Life is really difficult and the family barely eats one meal a day. He is a member of the Emergency Committee in Leogane, and he has worked closely, on a voluntary basis, with the NGOs since 13 January.

- Everyone, also journalists are deeply traumatised. There will definitely be people going crazy, says James Felix.

"Radio has a social function"

According to James Felix, 13 radio stations in Leogane were affected by the quake. Only three of them function to a certain degree: Kool FM, Ste Croix FM and Belval FM.

He is very anxious to get back to work and explains that it is important for the media to resume their work as soon as possible.

- Coming back on air for some of the radio stations gives people a sense of life returning and that things are getting back to normal. Besides, radios provide a very important social role. People need information. But radio also offers distress to people. People are desperate for information, for news, he explains.

Click on the window below to hear James Felix what radio journalists can do to help in Haiti right now:

Also in Leogane, IMS met with the director and owner of Radio Cool FM, Elmont Pierre.

The radio station was established in 2005. The building still stands after the earthquake, but has suffered a lot of cracks. Staff members managed to rescue most of the equipment and are now broadcasting from the street. Radio Cool FM was the first station on air in Pt Goave after the earthquake.

Elmont Pierre says that it is essential that the media gets back on its feet.

- We cannot leave people to themselves, says Elmont Pierre. We are the eyes and ears of Leogane and provide basic but essential information. We have of course focused on the earthquake since 12th. We guide the population, tell them where distributions are taking place. What to do in order to get part of the humanitarian help. We relay the information, he says.

He stresses that it is equally important, that the whole world needs to know what is happening in Leogane.

Before 12 January, Radio Cool FM used to broadcast between 18 – 24 hours a day. Now they run from 7 am to 9 pm. Of the 200.000 inhabitants in Leogane, Cool FM reaches 80%.

- Our staff has only returned little by little and works a few hours each day. They cannot go back to working full time now. Journalists too are victims, they too have suffered great losses, says Elmont Pierre.