Dave Farrell, bass player for the rock band Linkin Park, visited Haiti this week and met with local officials in an effort to coordinate aid from the band's charity organization, Music for Relief.

Music for Relief was founded by the band's members after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck South Asia in 2004 to aid survivors of natural disasters.

"When we started Music Relief, the goal was to be able to try to do something and raise awareness and funds for areas around the world that are affected by natural disasters. We were actually doing a project here in Haiti before the earthquake. And then, afterwards we got even more involved with the process. So, this was my first chance and opportunity that have gotten actually to come down here and see things for myself, to see some of the solar lighting that we were able to take part of, and the implementation of that. To kind of see the effect it has had, and hopefully to have a chance to talk to some people and continue to raise awareness for what's going on here..."

- Dave Farrell, Bass Player for Linkin Park

Music for Relief's Download to Donate for Haiti was an immediate response to the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake, enabling fans to share the songs of the campaign and embed a 'widget' on their own websites and blogs.

The 'widget' generated 9.7M views, 1.75M plays, generated 115,000 downloads to date and raised over $270,000 for Haiti.

Farrell said that he hoped to eventually bring the band down to perform in Haiti, which would be "...absolutely awesome. Ideally to be able to perform here at some point would be fantastic..."

Music for Relief also supports environmental programs to help in prevention and mitigation of future natural disasters such as the Send Dirt campaign for wetlands protection and restoration and the Million Tree Project in China's Inner Mongolia Desert.

More information can be found at the Music for Relief website : http://www.musicforrelief.org/

Courtesy: United Nations & United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)