CAIRO: While social media has been given much credit for accelerating Egypt's revolutionary fire, it has found another use in attracting attention to humanitarian causes in Egypt. Known as the Tweetback initiative, it is Egypt's first social media driven humanitarian fundraising project “to support popular endeavors that aim to effect real change in the lives of Egyptians,” according to a blog entry by Mahmoud Salem, more commonly known as Sandmonkey. Tweetback invites companies, foundations as well as individuals to pledge donations to NGOs and current development projects in Egypt. Tweetback was initiated on July 14 by Salem, who wrote in a post on his blog “Rantings of a Sandmonkey” that Tweetback “plans to make the most of social media's power to generate positive change by organizing a series of events, each in support of a worthy local cause.” Salem explains that social media had been a significant “tool” in the revolution and he hopes to harness that very power to “promote positive change and to help rebuild the country.” Tweetback also boasts Egypt's 20 other eminent and most-followed twitter bloggers consisting of journalists and activists who are part of the Tweetback team such as @amrwaked, @Ssirgany, @Safi, @ahmedelesseily, @pakinamamer, @noornoor1, @salmaeldaly, @travellerW, @nawaranegm @ahmednaguib, @hebaelkayal, to name a few. On the other hand, companies that have made pledges will in exchange get some publicity and will add “immense value” to the company's “perception and reputation,” according to Salem. Tweetback has its sight first set on Ezbet Khairallah, one of the largest unplanned communities in Egypt with up to 650,000 inhabitants. In order to fund the community development projects at Ezbet Khairallah, Tweetback aims to raise LE 2 million to support the local NGO Khair we Baraka, which has been active in the area since 2004. Contributions pledged for Ezbet Khairallah will be updated via Tweetback's official Twitter page with the hashtag #tweetback. The first Tweetback event will be held on July 26 at the Marriott Hotel from 12 to 2 pm. In the event corporate pledges made during the past 10 days will be announced to the press and donations will be collected as well. The event will also feature presentations about Ezbet Khairallah. Two of the participants, Sarah El Sirgany and Heba Elkayal, are editors at Daily News Egypt.
