Monday, May 4, 2015

TRENDING

I am sort of fascinated by how "things" go viral on social media.

How in the world did Rebecca Black's "Friday" video go viral. She's a cute kid, but the song? Not so much.

And what about that stupid blue/black dress?  What the heck? And who cares?

I'm as addicted to social media (especially Facebook and Instagram) as anyone. I justify it by citing it's uses in "ministry".  It really is useful. For example, in two years of using Social Media based Crowdfunding tools like Indiegogo and Tilt, we've raised more than $30,000 for the Coffee House Ministry Center we're building here in Ukraine.

And now we're doing it again.

Actually, I'm mostly taking this one "off"- I figure I wore my friends out a few months ago while raising funds for the Coffee House (which is really make progress by the way and it'll be operational this summer and open in September!)

I recently created a page on Indiegogo to help my partners here in Ukraine with Ruka Dopomogy (actually a part of International Teams) to raise money for Summer Camp.

Supper Camp is near and dear to my heart. I love camp!  But with the currency devaluation here in Ukraine this past year (from 8 UAH to 1 USD to now more than 20 UAH to 1 USD) along with the fact that salaries have not increased...well, it's going to be really hard for families to send kids to camp.

The camp is cheap by US standards. We can feed and house a kid for a week and provide a pretty good program for only about $25 USD a week.  Last year that was about $200 UAH for a Ukrainian family...but today it would more than $600 UAH. It's still $25 to you and me but it's triple what it was last year for a Ukrainian family. It doesn't always make sense to me but that's how it works!

In addition to the increase in cost, we now have nearly 2 million internally displaced people (refugees) in Ukraine. Most are women and children who have fled or been sent out of eastern Ukraine. Many of them now reside in our region and we want them to come to camp. It's even more financially difficult for them.

That's why Ruka Dopomogy asked me to create the Indiegogo Campaign- to raise funds that will sponsor Refugee Kids and Teens at 100% for Camp this summer. In addition to that we'll let Orphans and Foster Kids attend for 1/2 price and we'll offer discounts for families with multiple children.

We'll do all that if we can raise the funds.  You can donate on the Indiegogo page and please share the link on your social media outlets. Wouldn't it be fun if it went "viral"?

http://igg.me/at/OMPaGdUZLg0/x/10068697