Kerala Floods: Facebook donates Rs 1.75 cr for flood victims

New Delhi, Aug 20: Social networking giant Facebook is donating $250,000 (nearly Rs 1.75 crore) for relief work in Kerala, which has been battered by torrential rains, floods and landslides, leaving over 300 dead amid massive destruction, the company said on Monday. Facebook will donate the money through the Community Resilience Fund for GOONJ — a Delhi-based non-profit organisation that is leading the relief and recovery efforts in the impacted localities. “In the last few days, the social network company along with the power of the community, has helped reach out to people through features such as Live, creating Page, joining community and raising funds,” a Facebook spokesperson told IANS.

People across Facebook have created “Groups”, “Live Videos” and “Pages” to raise funds to mobilise support and help the worst affected. On August 9, the Facebook community activated its feature “Safety Check”, allowing people to let their friends and family know that they were safe. The “Help and the Crisis Donate Button” on the platform has garnered more than 1,300 posts from the affected areas. The posts were asking for help and also for offering things like shelter, food, water, transportation and volunteer work. So far, nearly 500 people have donated using the Crisis Donate Button. (IANS)