Social Work Volunteer Opportunities

On Saturday, the 28^th of August 2010, we hosted our first ever Jaago Re! Tweet Up at Zenzi Mills, Mumbai where we invited social media experts, activists, volunteers, & tweeps who registered themselves for the event, to discuss the role of Digital Media for Social Change.

Our hope was that through the tweetup we’d find ideas & solutions to tackle the challenges that we all face while trying to awaken & inspire people through digital media & we’re really happy to say it was an incredible discussion full of passion & insight.

So for those of you who couldn’t attend, here is an overview of what we heard & what was shared!

The tweetup was moderated by Abhishek Thakore – a social change entrepreneur who’s been spearheading a youth organization called The Blue Ribbon movement for over a decade. We began by asking our panelists of their experience of trying to impact lives through digital media.

Harish Iyer (@hiyer), blogger and activist set a positive tone by expressing his pov on the issue, “If you do something good, share it with the whole world, so that someone somewhere can get inspired!” Others pitched in with their own experiences & the discussion soon veered towards the tremendous power of social media. “Social media breaks the thought that volunteering is restricted to people who are empowered!” – said Snigdha Manchanda, writer and Social Media consultant (@actionink). Dina Mehta, researcher, ethnographer and social media observer (@dina) shared her own experience of blogging to help Tsunami victims, which proved a great success. Mahafreed (@mahafreed)– journalist with Times of India brought to light the use of digital media to ‘expose’ corruption & wrong behavior in addition to inspiring people. She talked of her mother who’s an active whistleblower on drivers who flout traffic norms & how simple things like tweeting about it or putting up a picture could prove effective. 

Another Panelist, Bhairavi Sagar (@bhairavisagar), a volunteer with ‘World without Wars’ chipped in with a counter view, “We’re seeing Social Media as a medium of communication, not as a means of activism,” reminding us of the fact that a lot of NGO’s weren’t making the most of the opportunities of digital social media.

Which brought us to, why has social media worked for some social organizations and not for the others?

“Sometimes problems are logistical, NGOs don’t have the required resources or even a work force that has heard about Twitter or Facebook” said Chandni Parekh (@fundacause), social psychologist.

Priyanka (@priyankawriting) founder of digiwhirl & enthusiastic volunteer commented on the ‘NGO tone’ and how it would put people off online. Harish Iyer felt that influencers must help out like he does where he ‘spices up’ tweets of non-profits asking for help to ensure they get noticed. One of the many ‘quotes of the day’ came from Dina Mehta where she said, “For digital media to succeed as a tool of social change, technology too needs to be humanized & have a heart.”

Netra (@netra) who’s an avid networker as part of Pinstorm media - believes that the power of digital media extends to everyone - “Even if you’re not an NGO and you tweet about something you’re passionate about, someone is bound to take notice. If you’re popular, you’re surely going to mobilize people into taking some action!”

So if the platform has such obvious advantages, why is it that actionable social change is taking so long to catch up?

Harish Iyer responded by saying that - “We need to make activism much more sexy than it presently is, we need to market it well and make people see the awesome side of being a do-gooder!”

The other consensus was that individuals & NGOs need to simplify participation as well ensure that they come up with creative ways for people to get involved. Success of initiatives like the Wall Project and Pink Chaddi Campaign are testament to this.  

With these ideas filling the room, it was time for a quick chai break. Invigorated & refreshed we continued with Ankit Nandwani – who volunteered with Open Space through jaagore.com – sharing his amazing experience. The evening ended with a short film by MovieMala by director Ajit Sawant called ‘Life Drops’ based on saving water.

Great conversations, inspiring ideas and a roomful of new friends – that’s what we hope everyone got from the Jaago Re! tweetup. Look forward for more events from Jaago Re! in the future and share your questions or comments with us.

List of folks who attended :

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