The power of social media in preventing diseases
- 04 Dec
Unilever has taken a more social approach to make charity giving more personal and relevant by partnering with Facebook.
The Waterworks application enables Facebook users to learn of the differences that their donations actually make.
Almost 800 million human beings do not have access to clean drinking water. This is made worse when water-borne diseases pose a major threat to the weakest members of society and leads to a child dying from a water-related illness every 20 seconds. However, this is all preventable.
The partnership between Unilever, Facebook and global health organisation PSI (Population Services International) means safe drinking water can be accessible by more people through utilising the social graph on Facebook. Their aims are to maximise connections between 'people with means' and 'people in need'.
Each Waterworker is given a mobile phone, preloaded with a custom Waterworks J2ME application that allows photos to be taken and stories to be recorded. These can then be shared to partners and friends on Facebook. By demonstrating how their funds are affecting the community, it is hoped to inspire partners/friends to donate and continue supporting the work. Personal notifications to donors can also be sent via the application creating a genuine link between an individual Waterworker and their supporting Facebook users.
This social approach enables a whole community to build and support each Waterworker in a way that could not have been done before. These people's dynamic experiences, stories and activities can be enough to influence a small circle of friends and their friends' friends...
You can read more about this here.
What do you think of this? Tweet us your comments @suppsolutions
This blog post has been written by our sister company The Media Bubble who specialise in social media for the social sector.
Image source: http://www.freeimages.com/assets/9/85473/water-drop-1438170-7-m.jpg
Related articles
- 20 Apr
CHARITY WORKS TOWARDS A NATIONAL PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS
Prime minister, Theresa May and the first ministers of Scotland and Wales congratulated "Crisis" on its anniversary and gave an assurance to work hand in hand with them while on a quest to eradicate...
- 30 Jan
THE FATE OF EU-FUNDED PROJECTS AND ITS EFFECT ON CHARITY SERVICES
In March 2016, forecasts of growth were low and the government's own estimates put the Treasury's coffers £122bn poorer by 2020.The supreme court has also determined that MPs must approve the...
- 15 Jun
INCREASE IN THREATS OF EVICTIONS FROM HOMES
After analysing statistics from the Ministry of Justice, the housing charity (Shelter) found the following:In the past year, the number of people seeking advice from 'Shelter' on their eviction...
- 07 Jun
CHARITIES, THEIR BRANDS, BENEFICIARIES AND HOW TO EFFECT CHANGE
"Most charities exist because their founders believed the future could be different if they mobilised supporters", but Mandy Johnson of the Guardian believes"This vision is being lost."Charities are...
- 17 Apr
Support for veterans to return to work
Places for People hopes to support veterans into the workplace and also benefit from the skills and experience they have to offer, reports 24dash.All veterans applying for jobs in Places for People's...
- 26 Jan
Charity registers as social landlord
It has now registered its housing department as a housing association, Inside Housing reports.The charity set up Golden Lane Housing (GLH) in 1998, which has now registered to be a social landlord...
- 14 Jan
Charity to develop app for people with disabilities
The funding will enable the charity to develop and test the free app, called FlyCatcher, which could be on the market by 2016.The app uses iBeacon technology to send information through smartphones...
- 14 Jan
Young people’s health harmed by fuel poverty
The Department of Energy and Climate Change have reported that 10% of households in England were in fuel poverty.The charity, Turn2us have stated that 75% of the 2,060 adults in the PRS who were...
- 08 Jan
Homelessness in Scotland
Shelter Scotland stated that this percentage is ‘disproportionate' to the sector's size which makes up 13% of all housing in Scotland, Inside Housing reports. It was also mentioned that the number...
- 07 Jan
Homelessness an ‘increasing trend’ in Wales
Cais blames the lack of options available to individuals due to the change in the type of support that can be offered.The Chief Executive of Cais, Clive Wolfendale has described the problem of...
How to Fund Housing Support and Social Care Services Good clear delivery of some complicated information. Jaqui Smith - Young Womens Housing Project
