Changing the World One Step at a Time with Reparations.Me

It’s easy to get carried away with all the bad things happening in the world, be it wars, poverty or high unemployment rates in some countries. Still, all is not that bad and there are many initiatives that try to make the world a better place. Just take Reparations.ME, for example. A service that connects people in need of things with others that can provide those things is really something that puts our faith back in humanity.

Because the upcoming holiday season is the biggest time of the year for giving and receiving, we know that a lot of us will donate a lot to charity this year. Research by Network for Good has shown that as much as 12% of all giving happens in the last three days of the year, and a whopping 30% of giving happens in the month of December. The average gift size also increases in December, with the December gifts being more than double in size when compared to the rest of the year.

If you want to spend December donating to those in need, for example, there’re a few things you might want to keep an eye on:

• Explore social media, and see what the charity you want to donate to is doing. This might help you find out more about their cause, so you can truly support the things that mean a lot to you. A lot of charities have great social media channels, and you’re sure to find a lot of info about them there, don’t be afraid to educate yourself!

• Set yourself a limit for giving, so you can then go and spread that amount over the number of causes you want to support. Our advice is to save a little every week or month if you really want to donate in December, or simply to donate every month to your charity of choice! Whatever your decision, make sure you have the money set aside precisely for donating.

Be Someone’s Santa

If you still haven’t heard of the famous Reddit’s Secret Santa event, you’re missing out on a lot of great things. This initiative was started back in 2009, along with redditgifts, with the aim to make the best and greatest secret Santa event the Internet has ever seen. The premise is a modern twist on the classic secret Santa idea: you buy a gift for a stranger over the Internet, without them knowing who you are.

This leads to some seriously awesome gifts, like game consoles, laptops, kindles, guitars and more, gifted by Reddit users from around the world. An interesting part of this exchange is that all sorts of celebrities and famous people also participate, with the likes of Bill Gates sending you a photo of himself, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots singing you a serenade, Stephen Colbert sending you a photo of him riding an eagle and more. The possibilities are virtually endless!

You can still apply for this years’ event, and as of the writing of this article, you can be matched with someone from over 70 thousand people that you can send gifts to (and receive them from). Of course, there’re some things you need to know, like the average completion rates and the process of rematching if you didn’t receive a gift from your Santa. There’s, of course, a risk of fraud, but the Reddit community is working hard on preventing any bad stuff from happening to you.

A Great Example Of Technology Helping People

And now for something completely different: using Instagram to show the process of providing water to Malawi, a landlocked country in southeastern Africa. WaterAid has raised over 2.25 million pounds to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene in Malawi through an innovative campaign called The Big Dig.

With both a blog and an Instagram account, The Big Dig has shown anyone who has backed the project exactly where their money went, in a series of blogposts and behind the scenes Instagram photographs. Two members of the water Aid project staff, Michael Kalane and Nathan Chiwoko used Instagram to document the challenges and the impact they had on the communities via The Big Dig account.

This way the supporters of the cause had an inside look into where their money was spent, and also felt more connected to the cause. This certainly wouldn’t be the case if the charity simply built the wells in Malawi without any social media activity.

People Helping People : Reparations.ME

When it comes to making the world a better place every day, Rreparations.ME is doing an amazing job. Starting as a social media experiment on Facebook back in July, Reparations is a way for people to collaborate, help each other and make a change.

The way Reparations works is like this:

• You state what you want or need ( like a game on steam you can’t afford, or a place to work in a foreign country for a few days)
• Others that have the thing you need help you with that, free of charge.
• You then help someone else by offering your home, services or knowledge!

This is an incredibly simple premise, but it works well. The site’s “vibe” is so great and the acts of kindness given to strangers by other strangers are truly genuine and heart-warming. 

Both Reddit’s secret Santa, and other events like that one help us put a smile on someone’s face, and if that isn’t worth a few dollars, we don’t know what is. It’s great to see people helping each other and we will do our utmost to spread the word of great sites like Reparations.ME that really aim to make the world a better place.

We’d like you to take a look at the site, and perhaps you have the skill someone’s been looking for weeks so that you can too do something great today.

And lastly, remember: make a change this holiday season, and help someone in need.

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