They are immersed in gadgets. They lack social skills. They don’t care about causes. These are charges often levied against digital natives. But, take a closer look and you will see these denizens of the virtual world exhibiting rare mastery in using bits and bytes to promote social causes; and they display admirable people’s skills as they go about mobilising volunteers for these causes through technological aid.
The Paintbox gives the city’s neglected public walls a makeover. The group has come a long way in this mission with the support of tech-savvy youngsters. These young volunteers have had a big role in building a massive volunteer base – all through Facebook.
“We created a Facebook page right when we got started. Now, we have more than 3,000 people following us on the social networking site. We post details about our sessions in advance to invite and inform volunteers,” says Namrata Ramaratnam, who founded The Paintbox together with Tejas Ramaratnam, Eshwar Kaushik and Hari Haran B.
The Paintbox has left behind colours of joy in over 20 areas including Mandeveli, Besant Nagar Beach and Marina beach.
Around nine years ago, the founders of Bhumi, India’s largest independent and youth volunteer non-profit organisation, met on Orkut and started a small group. Bhumi now has around 2,000 volunteers teaching underprivileged kids in 12 cities. The average age of a Bhumi volunteer is around 22 years and a large part of the group’s success can be attributed to their ability to stay connected through technology.
Nizhal, which protects trees, relies almost entirely on digital natives for its ‘Free The Tree’ campaign, which is about removing advertisement boards and nails from trees. These youngsters work with a great degree of independence and plan their campaigns in a different neighbourhood every Sunday through WhatsApp, Google Groups and Facebook, says Hitesh Purohit, a college student associated with the NGO
There is more evidence about how responsible youngsters can be on social media.
Arun Krishnamurthy, famous for the lake cleanups he orchestrates through his organisation Environmentalist Foundation of India, says, “Every Wednesday night, we send messages regarding weekend lake-cleanups. We follow strict guidelines. The messages are restricted to environment issues and the work we do. Our messages are kept short and crisp. We do not exceed three lines, and forty words.”
On International Youth Day, a look at social initiatives that are being sustained by tech-savvy youngsters
