This article was published on November 6, 2014

Facebook encourages users to donate to fight Ebola


Facebook encourages users to donate to fight Ebola

After donating $25 million to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is inviting all 1.3 billion users of the social network to join the battle, by making it easy to donate to organizations involved in tackling the deadly disease.

Facebook’s first move, rolling out later today, is a new Donate button displayed above the News Feed, that lets users send monetary contributions to three non-profit organizations who are actively managing the crisis in West Africa: International Medical Corps, the Red Cross and Save the Children.

In addition, Facebook is working with UNICEF to display Ebola symptoms and treatment info to users in targeted regions. The social network is also teaming up with global NGO consortium NetHope to provide emergency voice and data services to medical and aid workers across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the disease has struck hardest. 100 mobile communication terminals have been donated for deployment in these countries to provide broadband and mobile phone connectivity via satellite.

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Users can also get more information over at this Facebook microsite that describes the impact of Ebola and how you can help support the fight against the disease.

UPDATE: Facebook has posted the following video featuring Mark Zuckerberg discussing the drive.

Coming Together to Fight Ebola [Facebook Newsroom]

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