Using social media to spread the spirit of charity
Danesh Maduranga Edirisooriya who is the brainchild behind SamajaSathkara- a Facebook campaign for social service. Danesh has put his creativity to good use by planning innovative project ideas to carry out community service initiative. Spreading the spirit of Vesak this year, Danesh has launched a project titled – ‘Donate and Join Challenge’ which opens up an opportunity for individuals, especially the youth, to get more involved in the activities of SamajaSathkara (a social service campaign).
Encouraging acts of social service via social media
“The challenge is to help a needy person –even by donating a small amount to the poor. Take a photo of the meritorious act you did and upload it on the event folder on our SamajaSathkara Facebook page. By doing so, you can sign up with us to qualify for the next level, which is carrying out a project on your own to gain permanent membership,” says Danesh.
A software, mobile and robotics engineer by profession, Danesh works as an Application Developer at Sarvodaya Fusion once a week, and attends to his personal business Nano Think Lab – a web and mobile app developing business as well. It’s the time in between, that Danesh has set aside for community service activities- a passion that he has been following since his childhood. Having first started his community service work in 2006 with his father, he continued the good work, until his father’s demise in 2009.
Danesh
In 2013, Danesh has established the B. H .Edirisooriya Community Service Foundation in honour of his father to continue the social servicework. The Facebook page SamajaSathkara.lk is a result of this Foundation. Since the initiation of the Samaja Sathkara Facebook project, Danesh has single handedly coordinated over 200 projects reaching out to over a 1000 beneficiaries. It is through the facebook page that he finds volunteers and donors to assist him for various community welfare activities he conducts for people who are in desperate need in remote parts of Sri Lanka. Prior to launching a project, Danesh travels to the villages, for example, last year he took to the Pollebeddha village in Ampara where he donated clothes to 371 villagers, going from house to house with the Gramasevaka collecting details of the families with which he came back to Colombo to reach out to the well-wishers .
Danesh will be on the move throughout the month of Vesak (May) this time,travelling to villages in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kurunegala, Amparai, Kandy, Matara with a number of projects- ‘SayanaPooja’ (donating beds for temples), ‘SenehaseyCharikawa’– aimed at visiting the villages to listen to their problems while ‘Project Hope’ will see wheel chairs, walkers and other items being donated for those in need of them.
Asked whether he will be accompanied by a team to assist him initiate these projects, Danesh says, “some volunteers join me directly from various locations after seeing my facebook updates. I also get help from the villagers.” Danesh believes that a project like SamajaSathkara will not just inspire people to engage in social service but also to use social media in a productive manner.
“If one wants to do social service,you can carry out something single handedly. I have proved it by coordinating so many projects. It is not a daunting task after all,” he adds. SamajaSathkara can be reached via facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/B.H.EdirisooriyaFoundationor website http://www.samajasathkara.lk