Facebook Will Match Your Donations To The Nepal Relief Effort

This article originally appeared on 60 Second Social.

Facebook is urging members to donate to the emergency response teams working in Nepal following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck over the weekend – and they will match contributions up to $2 million.

A message has been added to the top of the News Feed encouraging members to donate funds to the International Medical Corps working in Nepal. The matching funds from Facebook will go towards local search and rescue organisations.

The disaster has killed more than 4,000 people and the death toll continues to rise at the moment with many people still missing. Facebook has said that 100% of the donations through the Facebook platform will go directly to the International Medical Corps.

Inspired by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Facebook announced shortly after the quake in Nepal that they had activated their “Safety Check” feature in the region. The feature identifies users based on their location and alerts them if they are in an area affected by the disaster. Users can notify friends and family they are safe by simply pressing a button in the app which updates their News Feed to say they are okay.

For Facebook it is a chance to offer tools to people in affected areas to check in on their loved ones and keep friends and family updated. IMC will be working to bring life saving medication and supplies to people in need, they will also be distributing hygiene kits and water purification tablets.

You can donate from directly inside your Facebook News Feed, the feature should be present at the top of the feed as of this morning.

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