Volunteering seemed easy in high school. We served at our church, local food bank, soup kitchen, sports teams, etc, etc. Since coming to college, it seems like most of our time goes into studying, extra-curriculars and getting sleep. Sometimes it might even seem like the only kind deed we did that day was giving a meal swipe to an upperclassmen.
This year I began to notice a simple way to give back — through social media based service projects and campaigns. Usually all a social media service project requires is to like or share a post, tweet or instagram something with a certain hashtag, or take a picture. These simple steps can raise awareness by leading at least 100+ see the organization supported and, in some cases, raise money for the cause.
This year, the Vietnamese Student Association at UVA supported OneBodyVillage, an organization with a mission to “To combat human sex trafficking in developing countries, especially in Vietnam and Cambodia, and to provide at risk children and survivors with shelter, medical and behavioral health care, educational assistance, and vocational training to improve their future.” Instead of asking for monetary donations, the organization launched the STOP campaign- people took a selfie with the word STOP on their hand, and VSA@UVA sent it back to OBV. Each picture raised $1 towards the campaign. No hassle, no leaving the dorm, no money from their pocket.
VSA@UVA also participated in the #CaseForGirls campaign, the same one HerCampus writers helped out with a few days ago (https://www.facebook.com/HerCampusUVA). This campaign raises “awareness for girls’ education using social media”, geared towards raising scholarships for 25 young girls in Vietnam who cannot afford an education (http://www.caseforgirls.org/). Each tweet with the #caseforgirls hashtag or each selfie taken with the same hashtag posted on facebook/twitter/instagram receives a $10 donation matched by Western Union. All they had to do was smile! So far, VSA@UVA has raised about $2,500, hoping to reach $3,000. They are still accepting pictures, so if you’re reading this and you are compelled to take a cute selfie after, why not help them out? You can send your picture in to vqn2ce@virginia.edu (that’s me!)
So the next time you see a post asking you to do something social media related to help out a fundraiser, check out the cause first to make sure it’s not sketchy, and then see for yourself how easy it is to help. What’s a minute or two to lose?