Face-this
by Benjamin Kimble, , April 26, 2010
WHAT is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
The DRC is extremely wealthy - and extremely big. Similar in size to Western Europe, it abounds with diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt and zinc. The country also has supplies of coltan, which is used in mobile phones and other electronic gadgets, and cassiterite, used in food packaging. Unfortunately for the people of DRC, its resource wealth has rarely been harnessed for their benefit. This vast country has hardly any roads or railways, while the health and education systems lie in ruins. Instead, the natural riches have attracted rapacious adventurers, unscrupulous corporations, vicious warlords and corrupt governments and divided the population among competing ethnic groups.
- The human toll of the fighting - often called Africa's 'First World War' - has been catastrophic, with more than four million dead since 1998.
- Around 1,200 people die each day as a direct or indirect result of the conflict - more than half of them children.
- Many have suffered horrific abuse, including rape and sexual slavery by armed groups, which has contributed to the advance of HIV/Aids.
Can YOU help?
Do you use Facebook?
More than 400 million active users
Have you used Facebook today?
50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
Have you updated your status today?
More than 35 million users update their status each day and more than 60 million status updates posted each day
How easy would it be to raise awareness for this cause?
More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
Share this: http://www.enoughproject.org/
or this: http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/
or this: www.womenforwomen.org/congo.htm
or this: http://www.provocate.org/more-info/about-congo/about-
women-and-conflict-in-congo-and-africa/
More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
Become a fan http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23341162556&
- Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
- Average user has 130 friends on the site
YOU have the power to inform at least 130 people, and if each of those people informs at least 130 people, and so on and so forth, well you do the math.
A few more facts in order to grasp the magnitude of influence that Facebook has:
- About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
- More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008
- More than 60 million Facebook users engage with Facebook Connect on external websites every month
- Two-thirds of comScore's U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore's Global Top 100 websites have implemented Facebook Connect
With an audience this big, the question is not can you help, but how can you make a difference?
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