Facebook is stepping up its efforts to fight Ebola by adding a button designed to make it easier for its users to donate to charities battling the disease.
The social media company is also donating and deploying 100 satellite communication terminals to boost Internet and phone services to affected areas in West Africa, where the disease has killed nearly 5,000. The programs come on the heels of a $25 million donation last month by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention toward the Ebola response.
Facebook Inc. says that, over the coming week, its users will see an option to donate to three nonprofits fighting Ebola. The groups are the International Medical Corps, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Save the Children. Facebook says it chose charities that work directly on the ground and are able to accept money globally.
The Menlo Park, California company says the terminals will provide Internet and voice-calling access to remote areas of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone so that medical aid workers can get access to voice and data services. The devices will also help people with Ebola who have been placed in isolation communicate with their families, and health workers who’ve traveled to Africa keep in touch with friends and family back home, said Chris Weasler, Facebook’s head of spectrum policy and connectivity planning, in an interview from Ghana…Read More
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