What does a new charity look like?
Masha Vorslav
A few days ago The second charity event, Armpits4August, has ended, and in November, the regular, but already better known, Movember will also be held. These are examples of charitable initiatives of the new model: they have the same goals as the old and powerful ones like the Pink Ribbon, and the potential is almost more. Tell us why.
10 years ago in Australia, men decided to raise a mustache the whole of November - so began Movember, one of the most famous charitable and educational initiatives about male cancer. The promotion has since been held every year. Mo Bros, enlisting the support of wives, girlfriends, sisters and other caring girls (Mo Sistas), they poured a photo of their freshly shaven face on Movember.com, set the amount they expect to collect by the end of the month, and grow a mustache. The logic is simple: it is hard not to notice the suddenly appeared whiskers, which means there is a reason to tell everyone who is curious about prostate cancer, about the fact that two times less money is allocated for his research than for breast cancer research (conditionally "female" cancer), and ask the other person to make a charitable contribution. 10 years after the first "movembra", more than a million people participated in the project, who collected a total of 118 million dollars.
The recent Armpits4August dubbed the action, symmetrical Movember. This August, the British (and not only) girls put off their razors for a month and allowed their underarm hair to grow. The meaning is the same: in summer everyone wears open clothes, and there are much more chances to push a cart about polycystic ovary syndrome to an interested person (ovarian dysfunction occurs in PCOS, and hirsutism, that is, an increased amount of body hair, is one of its frequent symptoms). And although the founders of the movement, along with a charitable goal, set the fight against the standard of smoothness (which is highly controversial), they welcome contributions from both girls and men who have not actively participated in Armpits4August.
Terminally Illin 'is another example of new-style charity events. This is a 150-page comic book collection based on the blog of a 23-year-old girl who fought cancer (he is a separate character in the book). According to Kayleen Mary (that same girl) and her friend John, this comic was supposed to cheer up other patients, because "laughter is one of the best medicines." The money for the book was collected on Kickstarter, and from each copy of it sold one dollar Keilin and John transferred to the accounts of people with cancer of the people - such is bilateral charity.
Such stories are part of a large Public Health 2.0 concept. The distinguishing features of the latter are the use of Internet resources (crowdsourcing, user-generated content and social networks and media) for the benefit of health and the fact that both the organizers and the audience are emotionally attached to projects.
PH 2.0 loyalists see no point in social advertisements (Dumb ways to die not counting) in the form of posters with celebrities who haven't been working for anyone for a long time - instead they concentrate on digital summits like this, create subject magazines, develop applications for smartphones and outdoor games for different platforms, they organize actions like Movember and Armpits4August and film festivals. Thanks to all this, health care becomes a matter not only of a stiff state apparatus, but also of every person who has access to the Internet.