Using the Internet for genuine social change
Can you imagine wading through water — or even swimming — to attend school? That’s exactly what some 200 kids based in a fishing community off the shore of Zamboanga City had to do everyday. And all it took was a Facebook update to change these students’ lives for the better.
Jay Jaboneta was attending a blogging summit in Zamboanga when he first learned about the children of Layag-Layag, a small village populated by huts raised over a shallow part of the Sulu sea near Tictauan Island. Though the entire settlement is over water, it’s part of Zamboanga City’s Barangay Talon-Talon.
Wishing he could do something about the kids’ daily difficulty, Jay wrote about the situation on his Facebook account upon returning to Manila. Things then took a life of their own. One of Jaboneta’s friends started an online fundraising campaign on behalf of the community.
Within a week, over P70,000 was raised for a school boat, for ferrying the children to and from their village and the southern shore of Zamboanga City. Jaboneta and company encountered some difficulties securing the labor and wood necessary for the boat’s construction, but five months, later he was present at the turnover ceremony.
The students still have to hike around two kilometers inland to reach Talon-Talon Elementary School, but not having to wade (during low tide) or swim (high tide) is a welcome respite.
The story of Jay Jaboneta using the Internet to help out the children of Layag-LayAg is no longer a novelty. People have discovered that the Internet can facilitate good causes, especially for fundraising purposes.
Image taken from this whatblog.com entry
During the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy’s devastation, my former office mate Mike Villar raised over $6,000 for the Philippine Red Cross’ relief efforts. All he did was create a website calling for donations, using an online payment service called PayPal that let people send in donations with their credit cards.
He promoted philippineaid.com (no longer active) through Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. Donors from all over the world were moved by Villar’s persuasive writing, which detailed the destruction.
After the Eastern Japan Great Earthquake Disaster of two weeks ago, local websites such as CashCashPinoy.com used the same method — accepting credit card payments as donations online — to raise funds for that catastrophe’s relief efforts.
Here’s another example: now that the Layag-Layag children have a boat to bring them halfway to school, Winston Almendras at batangyagit.com is collecting money to pay for the students’ school supplies. Head over to wp.me/pl3k7-Dm for more information.
Not all online outreach programs involve money however. Faith Salazar of tanggera.com is asking for supplies on behalf of the Payatas High School. Check out http://j.mp/fXlSf5 for details. The instructions are near the bottom of the web page, above the blog post’s comments.
If you have a worthy cause and good communication skills, you should try your hand at online philanthropy. With the amount or giveaways you can quickly raise from donors and their credit cards, the results may be surprising. What kind of difference can you make?
