Social media for social causes

A bunch of enthusiasts gathers every 2-3 weeks at a café in Bandra to indulge in a night of board games. “This Christmas, we thought we would pay it forward by sharing the joy of playing,” says Ajesh Shah, 27, media professional who, along with Kumar Jhuremalani and Mihir Vora, thought of using their event to help collect toys for less fortunate kids.

It started with a blog post from Ajesh Shah requesting people to show up with toys — preferably new or usable old ones — and people are fast jumping on to the bandwagon for a good cause.

“We initially tied up with Toybank (hyperlink: Toybank.org) but thanks to Twitter we have another NGO, Project Crayons, with us now,” Shah says proudly.

“Social media brings together a lot of people for a good cause,” says Mihir Vora, 34, marketing professional who has managed to find nine volunteers to gift wrap the collected toys. All within four hours of putting up the blog post on Twitter.

Another initiative by Mainadevi Bajaj International School’s community service team is calling out to residents of western suburbs to donate old newspapers to enable the team to buy Christmas sweets for poor children. Shawn Lewis, a 22-year-old art teacher at the school, shared a few tweets and has already managed to collect close to 300 kilos of old newspapers. “Just a few tweets from our personal accounts and we have received close to 60 calls! We are looking at setting up a Facebook page for the intitiative to gain momentum,” says an excited Lewis.

The team has already tied up with municipal schools in Malad and Dahisar. “Since we will be collecting papers from people’s homes, our initiative is convenient," says Lewis. "Twitter put us in touch with people who want to do something but don’t have the time.”

Using Twitter for a social cause isn’t new. Last year, a few Twitter celebrities decided to donate a few rupees for every Diwali wish sent their way on the micro-blogging site. The group managed to raise close to Rs45,000 for the NGO Goonj.

While social media might help you get in touch with people across the world, the phenomenon has also evolved into a platform to reach out to people and help them. If you would like to help any of the above initiatives, follow the links below for more details.

Donate a toy

Donate old newspapers

Warning: If you are donating for any charities through a social-networking site, it is important to check the credentials of the organisations involved. Also, do not make cash donations to individuals.