Man on Facebook mission
An individual’s quest to make a difference in society, Samaja Sathkara is a Facebook campaign initiated by a young IT enthusiast with a vision to serve the underprivileged. This Vesak, Danesh Maduranga Edirisooriya has three community service projects titled ‘Dharma dana’, ‘Jeewa dana’ and ‘Wasthra dana’ all carried out through social media.
Come Vesak and we all hear of dansalas but Danesh’s is a ‘digital dansala’ . His Dharma dana project will see the distribution of dharma CDs free of charge in and around Colombo with the assistance of volunteers, during May. “At the beginning, my target was to write 1000 CDs but a few minutes after I updated my Facebook page with information about the project, I had a tremendous response. One volunteer came forward to donate 2000 CDs. So my next target is to find volunteers to write 5000 CDs,” says Danesh adding that those who want to get involved in the project, will have to visit the relevant link posted on his FB page to access the dharma sermons and do the CDs. He will take care of the distribution.
Linked in: Danesh with villagers in Pollebeddha
“My hope is to encourage people living in Colombo to listen to the dharma – as it is very seldom that they get to attend dharma sermons at temples nowadays. So for Vesak this year, I thought of this new concept of dansala which will essentially give away dharma knowledge to people,” he says.
His aim to promote community service through social media is because he wanted to utilise the time he spent on social media in a productive manner, he stresses, adding that his cause is purely people-oriented and sans any political affiliations.
Having studied software, mobile and robotic engineering, Danesh works as Application Developer, at Sarvodaya Fusion once a week, while managing his personal business Nano Think Lab – a web and mobile app developing business the rest of the time. In between he dedicates himself to community service – a passion nurtured since childhood. It was in 2006 that he first started doing community service with his father and they continued their work together until his father’s demise in 2009. In 2013, Danesh set up the B. H . Edirisooriya Community Service Foundation in honour of his father to continue the good work his father inspired him to do. The Facebook page Samaja Sathkara is a result of this Foundation.
His second project Jeewa dana is all about saving animals and Danesh will facilitate the release of 1000 animals in slaughter houses and pet shops such as cattle, goats, pigeons etc. The animals will be given to selected farmers from rural villages who are involved in agriculture to sustain their livelihood, explains Danesh.
This particular project is not for Vesak alone as Danesh wants to be of help to those living abroad who would like to engage in this meritorious activity but who do not have the ability to arrange it. Danesh’s FB page will link such philanthropists with him to coordinate affairs from this end, he says.
His Wasthra dana collects clothes from the public to be distributed among under privileged people in Colombo and its suburbs. Some of the clothing he has received from well-wishers is for another project he intends to carry out in rural Pollebeddha in Amparai. Titled as ‘Gamata Thagi’ (Gifts for the Village), the Pollebeddha project is his biggest programme so far with the aim of helping 371 villagers (101 families) with clothing. Prior to launching this programme, Danesh travelled to Pollebeddha, spent a few days there going from house to house with the Grama Sevaka, to gather details of each villager- their age, clothes they need, the sizes etc. Back in Colombo, he made a list so that he could sort out the clothing accordingly and make a gift pack for each family. “Office attire is not suitable for them. We mainly requested people to send sarongs and cheetha,” Danesh says.
Danesh’s other signature campaign on FB is ‘Give up to Give’ where he encourages people to let go of their smoking, drinking or any other habit just for a day, week, month or a year, and donate the money saved for a worthy cause. “Through this I was able to get four of my friends to stop drinking and channel that money to a scholarship fund,” a proud Danesh told the Sunday Times.
Given that anti-religious sentiments are spread on social media at present, creating tension and hatred, Danesh’s community services FB page, he believes, would guide people to use social media for a good cause in a way that promotes love, peace and harmony, while encouraging others to initiate similar projects that would benefit society.