Wyclef Jean and his Yele Haitian Earthquake Fund have raised over $1 million for victims of this week’s natural disaster with a text-based campaign in which cell phone users send “Tele” to 501501 for an automatic $5 donation.
The Haitian-born former Fugee is in Port-au-Prince, helping rescue workers clear the streets of dead bodies from a scene he describes as “The Apocalypse.”
“We spent the day picking up dead bodies, all day that’s what we did,” Jean told FOX News in a telephone interview on Thursday. “The count is not 100,000 — there’s at least, has to be four to five hundred thousand people that is about to die.”
Wyclef says Haiti needs to raise a million dollars a day.
“We have to raise a million dollars a day. In four or five days, this whole country is going to be in chaos. We are calling for a state of emergency,” he said. “Many people have already reached out to see what they can do right now. We are asking those interested to please do one of two things: Either you can use your cell phone to text “Yele” to 501501, which will automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund (it will be charged to your cell phone bill), or you can visit www.Yele.org and click on DONATE.”