Facebook launched a portal called Community Help. The portal allows users to seek or offer help to people within their community who have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
The Community Help portal allows users to request or offer help to their neighbors.
Community Help is made so that people can ask for help or volunteer to deliver grocery shopping to whoever needs it, donate medical, personal hygiene or baby items, or volunteer in their community. Users can request help to get items such as masks, diapers, food, among other options.
Simultaneously, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, released a short film called Never Lost to honor the solidarity people have shown during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a post on his Facebook account, Zuckerberg wrote, “Thank you to everyone who did their part. If you need help or can offer it, visit facebook.com/covidsupport.”
Facebook launched this tool in the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, and according to a press release, this portal will be available in other countries in the coming weeks although no further details were given.
This initiative joins the list of actions carried out by Facebook, such as the investment of US $100 million in news agencies to encourage and promote verified information from reliable sources on the new coronavirus. For its part, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a non-profit organization of Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, previously announced a $25 million donation to find a cure for COVID-19. The social network has also implemented measures within the platform to avoid misinformation and support health experts.
COVID-19, the disease-causing the new coronavirus, was first detected in China in December and has spread rapidly worldwide. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic on March 11, saying it expects to see an increase in the number of cases and deaths. As of March 31, 181,099 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the U.S. and more than 845,158 worldwide.
