EBOLA CHARITY DONATION ON FB

Now you can join the worldwide fight against the Ebola outbreak, a health crisis being compared to HIV/AIDS epidemic, with just few clicks on your electronic device.

Social media giant Facebook announced Thursday a Donate feature on its pages to offer

WASHINGTON:

subscribers a chance to send money to organizations fighting the outbreak. It also announced two other initiatives. It’s tying up with Unicef to spread information about the outbreak, symptoms and treatment to people in targeted regions.

And, three, Facebook will bolster communications capability available to medical and aid workers fighting the out- break in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. These initiatives come just weeks after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated $25 million to CDC, US agency charged with preventing diseases, to fight Ebola.

“We need t o get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio,” Zuckerberg had said in a post announcing the grant.

WHO says there have been 13,042 reported cases of Ebola, with 4818 reported deaths, up to November 2, almost all of them in the three west African nations hit the hardest. Facebook’s Donate feature will appear at the top of the News Feed over the next week asking subscribers if they would like to donate to organizations fighting the outbreak in west Africa. For those who want to, the page will throw up three options for intended recipients: International Media Corps, American Red Cross and Save the Children.

Information about Ebola, the initiative with Unicef, will also appear in the News Feed, will contain symptoms and a toll-free number to call for more details.

Working with NetHope, a global consortium of 41 nonprofits, Facebook will donate 100 mobile satellite communication terminals to be deployed in the affected areas. They will provide voice and data services to medical and aid workers.