One website, one SIM card for Gawad Kalinga
By Eden Estopace (The Philippine Star) Updated September 20, 2010 12:00 AM


MANILA, Philippines - The social Web is evolving to embrace the social good.

Charitable organizations like the Red Cross had utilized social media sites Twitter and Facebook to call for donations at the height of the Haiti crisis — from people’s pockets to Haiti via text and social sites in an outpouring of support and love.

A similar effort is brewing in our own social graph with the recent launch of the GK1World website (www.gk1world.com) that seeks to encourage Filipinos based overseas to support the massive effort of Gawad Kalinga (GK) to build homes for the homeless and create livelihood opportunities for the newly formed communities.

The website promises, among other things, to use the social media to keep the fire burning for GK, which aims to mobilize every concerned Filipino citizen to work together to end poverty in the country “one town at a time through public-private collaboration.”

GK’s dream is not simple; it hopes to gather an army of one million volunteers to support its projects. The digital campaign is a big development and a big step for taking GK to the digital age.

“That is the only way for a nation to rise. We cannot think of small projects. Our vision for GK is 777 or 700,000 families in 7,000 communities in seven years,” said Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto.

In its seven years of existence, Meloto said they have opened the floodgates of generosity and now the organization is seeking to do more in the next seven years — to create livelihood opportunities for families in GK sites.

Jeffrey Tarayao, corporate social responsibility head of Globe, said in a presentation to the media during the 5th GK Builders Night that the site will be heavy with the use of social media networking tools.

The site has, among other things, a forum where people can interact with one another, RSS feeds for receiving timely information about the various activities in over 2,000 GK communities all over the country, and a capability for volunteers to upload their own content — videos, photos and articles.

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