Archive - 2012
May 17th
Calling all helping hands
After an earthquake hit the city of Van in southeast Turkey, a lot of initiatives were put into place to help rebuild the devastated area. The mobile phone company Turkcell decided to contribute and support projects in the educational sector. They launched a campaign on social responsibility hoping to garner the support of people across the country to help.
Why it matters
When a natural disaster hits, there’s usually a strong sense of unity in society. While we often see people engaging and helping one another, should brands have a more important role to play to heighten social awareness?
Source: www.turkcell.com.tr/site/tr/turkcellhakkinda/Sayfalar/sosyal-sorumluluk/egitim/van-icin-turkiye-kumbarasi/genel.aspx
Eating for charity
The Project “Cozinha com Alma” (Cook/Kitchen with Soul) is a solidarity take-away initiative where all the profits go to provide a social grant to support middle and lower-middle class families in deep financial difficulties. The families have been selected by the local authority social commission.
Why it matters
In the current financial and social crisis where people are carefully selecting how they spend their money, this can be a way of starting or expanding a business. By sponsoring these type of solidarity businesses, big brands can effectively contribute to social causes not with money but with their own products as well. How can businesses contribute in a more direct way - and on a local level - during hard economic times?
Volunteers unite (online)!
My Social Project is a social network for solidarity associations and people who want to be volunteers for them. The purpose of the website is to catalyse the growing number of volunteers and pairing them up with organisations that need a helping hand.
Why it matters
The number of youths available and even wanting to volunteer for social causes is growing. This can be a way of making social intervention more effective and private companies could perhaps integrate their workers in this project. However, if being a separate network from Facebook helps identify proactive participants, it can make it harder to reach a bigger audience. Will this project’s success depend, like many others, on its integration with bigger established social media platforms such as Facebook?
Source: http://p3.publico.pt/actualidade/sociedade/2551/my-social-project-rede-social-portuguesa-para-defender-causas
