Twestival is a global movement that uses social media for social good, empowering communities around the world to organize one-of-a-kind offline events in support of causes. Explore how you can make a difference!
As hard as it may be to believe, we just wrapped our fifth year of Twestival!
In 2013, we experimented with a new model. Instead of a single day of action, Twestival was opened up for local organizers to select their own date. And while we’re still gathering the final tally of how much was raised in 2013, we already know several incredible communities came together again for their fifth time to hold sell-out events — including Kuala Lumpur; Barcelona; Phoenix, Arizona; and Victoria, British Columbia.
But we were especially inspired by new cities like Nairobi and Dakar, two important African capitals that joined us to host their very first Twestivals and supported great local causes.
From London to the World
When I had the idea back in September 2008 to take a one-off event in London for local Twitter users and spin it out into a global charitable campaign, I never could have imagined we'd end up raising over $1.8 million for over 300 nonprofits worldwide. That’s a lot of money, for a lot of good causes.
It was also a lot of hard work involving thousands of volunteers. I am immensely proud of the passion that everyone has poured into Twestival and grateful for their eagerness to share this fun and rewarding dream.
Over the years, Twitter has evolved as an online community. Twestival was one of the first to tap into a global network of people to unite for distributed offline events, and in the early days, it also introduced many people including nonprofits to the power of social media for social good. Today, Twitter and other social networks are well known for their ability to connect individuals to the causes they care about and in some cases have truly become a force for change in society. It has been a thrill to be part of that early history.
Taking the party elsewhere
Every good party has to eventually wind down. After much contemplation, it finally feels like the right time to give the Twestival brand a rest.
Of course, the connections to the people you met through Twestival remain, and as individuals, we are no less committed to supporting the important work of nonprofits. If anything, Twestival may have inspired us all to do more. I certainly hope so.
If you are interested in hosting an event like Twestival, we are happy to give you encouragement and some resources to make it happen — all we ask is that you find a different name for your event to avoid confusion.
Many people have written about Twestival and focused on its impact with social media or fundraising. But for me, it comes down to one thing: the power of community. Because as much as Twestival made the most of a new tool called Twitter, it was the passionate volunteers who created the events where those 140-character messages actually transformed into real-world connections that made lasting impacts in cities all around the world.
Thank you for turning a little idea into a movement.
How many trees will Twestival help plant in Nairobi?
Twestival Nairobi organizer Evans Muriu, photo by kevdanative.com
Nairobi has been called the "Green City in the Sun" for its many parks and dense tree cover throughout the city.
But as this prominent Kenyan capital has quickly expanded, industrial waste and domestic pollution now increasingly threaten its green spaces, including the nearby wildlife reserve, Nairobi National Park.
Twestival Nairobi organizer Evans Muriu wants it to stop. His event will help plant a protective wall of trees between the park and the growing metropolis of more 3 million people.
Located just 7 km from the city centre, Nairobi National Park is a 117-square-km savannah ecosystem home to the Black rhino, lion, cheetah, Giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and diverse birdlife.
Source: Wikipedia
Green fences make good neighbours
On November 22, Twestival Nairobi will raise funds for the Nairobi Greenline Project, an initiative to plant 300,000 indigenous trees along a 30 kilometre strip of land bordering the park, forming a 50-metre-wide green boundary.
"What I wanted to achieve through Twestival, other than planting the trees, was improve people's consciousness of their immediate environment," says Twestival organizer Evans Muriu (@vancemuriu), a business consultant and youth mentor. "Planting trees does so much good," he adds, citing their importance in stopping erosion to the health benefits of shade and green spaces.
Adopt a seedling
Twestival Nairobi's goal is to raise money for at least 750 seedlings at the cost of 200 Kenyan shillings each (approx. US$2.30). The evening will feature music and "poet tree" festivities overlooking the Nairobi Central Business District skyline from the rooftop patio of PAWA254, a collaborative hub for social change.
But the event continues the next day with a tree planting, allowing participants to personally place their own adopted seedlings in the soil, and take action toward a greener Nairobi.
Drawing a line
Muriu knows there is a long way to go. "The deforestation in Nairobi is a mess," says Muriu. "Where you saw trees two years ago, they have been replaced by buildings. People are cutting down trees to put up commercial entities."
Muriu tells a story of seeing an old aerial photo of Nairobi in the 1960s. "You could see trees across the horizon," he says. "Today, if you took such a photo, all you would see is buildings. I think we need to draw the line and realign our priorities."
Interested in adopting a seedling? In Kenya, Twestival Nairobi is accepting donations via M-PESA mobile banking (Buy Goods Till number 89857). Alternatively, contact Evans Muriu and get more at nairobi.twestival.com
(You can also read more about Greenline in this CNN "Inside Africa" report.)
Here's your chance to make all that tweeting really pay for a good cause!
As part of our efforts to share the generosity of PayPal's $10,000 donation to Twestival 2013, we're launching a special contest. We want to give everyone a chance to win money for their favourite nonprofit—whether they have been involved in Twestival or not!
All you have to do to enter is post a tweet on one of the five days below about the topic of the day and the #twestival hashtag. If your tweet is selected, we'll make a $500 donation in your name to the favourite charity of your choice!
> Monday, October 7 ($500) — Who did you meet at Twestival?
> Tuesday, October 8 ($500) — What impact did Twestival have on your charitable organization? [special for past Twestival recipients]
> Wednesday, October 9 ($500) — Share a fun photo memory from a past Twestival
> Thursday, October 10 ($500) — Tell us how Twestival has influenced you or your community
> Friday, October 11 (two $500 prizes) — What nonprofit would you like to see supported by Twestival, and why?
Contest starts midnight GMT on each day and runs for 24 hours. Winners will be selected by the Twestival's global organizing team and announced the following week on Twitter and our blog.
They say there's no such thing as easy money—but it doesn't get much easier than this.
Start crafting those 140 characters with the hashtag #twestival and you could give your favourite charity a happy surprise!
#1. Use PayPal Here at your Twestival — two prizes of $2,500
The easy and innovative PayPal Here mobile payment app is an awesome way to collect donations at your Twestival. With PayPal Here and your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, you can accept credit cards, PayPal and checks on the spot at your Twestival—a great opportunity to seize the moment and encourage some spur-of-the-moment donations.
How to win: Simply sign up online to order your PayPal Here and post a photo of it in action to either Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #TwestivalPayPal. Then, for every $100 that your event raises in total, one ticket will be entered into a random draw on December 31, 2013. The more you fundraise, the greater chance you'll have to win one of two $2,500 contributions to your Twestival charitable recipient.
The draw will be held live online during the first week of January 2014. Please note that this contest is managed by Twestival organizers and PayPal has no direct oversight, responsibility or influence on its outcome.
To get started, download the PayPal Here mobile app and launch it to start setting up your account. This website will show you how to get the most out of the app and mobile card reader.
Got questions? Tweet us!
Please note that PayPal Here is currently only available in the United States. But don't worry—there are other ways to win.
#2. Twestival Team Photo Contest — two prizes of $1,000
Twestival Barcelona 2011 team photo
It's time to get creative! We're awarding two $1,000 donations to the charitable recipient of the Twestival teams with the best photo in each of these categories:
> Most creative team photo ($1,000)
> Photo (or video) that best highlights your chosen cause ($1,000)
Submit your 2013 team photo to [email protected] by December 31, 2013 to be eligible. Winners will be selected by the Twestival Global Team. We're looking for photos that are inspired, thoughtful and fun.
3. Twestival Tweets — six prizes of $500
Finally, to mark the fifth anniversary of Twestival, we want to give everyone a chance to win money for a nonprofit of their choice, whether they have been involved in Twestival or not!
We are giving away six $500 charitable donations for the best tweets in five categories between October 7 – 11.
Get all the details here.
You tweet, we give
We hope you enjoy sharing the Twestival love, and that you win big for your favourite registered nonprofit!
Ready to play? San Luis Obispo hosts Twestival Sept. 13
SLOcals Set to Discover their Inner Children
by Emily Branson, StudioGood
Residents and social influencers in the San Luis Obispo, California area, will be playing for a good cause this Friday, Sept. 13.
Located along the central coast of California roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, "SLO Town" is home to the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum, an innovative center that inspires learning through play.
(Click the image to take a virtual walkthrough of the museum.)
In addition to having a drink and grabbing some food, SLOcals will have the opportunity to explore the museum at their leisure. Guests can play in the kitchen, drive a fire truck, and buzz around the Bee Exhibit. If guests are feeling theatrical, they can dress up and take the Children’s Museum stage. If guests are looking for something more active, they can climb a staircase right to the very tippy top of the museum as if they are climbing to a tree house.
Twestival SLO hopes to bring the community together for a night of fun in support of a special place for kids and everyone young at heart. It’s bound to be a night for the books—or at least your Twitter feed!
Find out more about Twestival SLO or follow us on Twitter!
Got a story to share about your Twestival? Share it with us!
Two volunteers with The Yard charity ham it up in the photo booth (Photo: Scotland Photo Booths)
What better way to support a playground for some very special kids than to raise money by spending a few hours reconnecting with one's inner child?
Edinburgh recently became the first of scores of cities around the world to host a Twestival in 2013, with a fun-filled evening of face painting, playing dress-up, a magic show, concert and cake.
Located in the heart of Edinburgh, The Yard helps 1500 children between the ages of 3 and 25. (Check out this beautiful video and this amazing photo gallery to see the centre and meet some of the kids and families it supports.) "It's the only one its kind in Scotland, and their plan is to put more of these around Scotland, and then the rest of the UK," says lead organizer Rachael Robinson (@rae_robin).
But first, The Yard will focus on expanding its services in Edinburgh. "There's been massive demand," says Robinson. The centre staffs one playworker for every one or two children, and it hasn't been able to offer as many sessions to match the high level of interest from families and special education programmes. "Beginning in September, The Yard expects to start opening seven days a week," says Robinson, "so they can give a lot more time for people to take advantage of their services."
Putting the "fun" in fundraising
Every bit helps, and Twestival did its level best to support the cause with a lively event. By evening's end, the Twestival had raised more than £2000 (approx. US$3000). "It was a great night," says Robinson.
The main stage entertained Twestival-goers with five musical acts and sketch comedy magic performance troupe, all hosted by comedian Jo Caulfield. Elsewhere in the hall, local Yelp staff created an elaborate Mad Hatter-themed cake party, a photo booth snapped silly dress-up shots and an artist painted faces.
Who is that masked man? (Photo: Chris Scott)
In addition to the £10 ($15) cover charge, organizers opened a silent auction a week prior to the event. A simple website created on Weebly with a Google form and some social media promotion was all it took to get the bidding started, with the auction continued into the event itself, with items like a full-day digital audit from a web design firm, a half-day social media workshop, private beer tasting session, and two tickets to a local concert series.
In all, the auction raised £655 ($1000). "It was a lot more than we raised with the auction at our 2011 Twestival, so it was definitely the right tactic to take," says Robinson.
Plugging into the local tech scene
The venue for the event is also home to TechCube, a centre for tech startups, and three companies participated with activities and demos:
• SoDash (@SoDash) created the visuals for the Twitter wall projected above the main stage along with d charity and sponsors logos
• OutPlay (@outplayent) an app developer, hosted a competition on its IdleWords puzzle game, with the highest score won a lunch for three
• Interface3 (@interface3) offered an augmented reality screen, where Twestival-goers could dress up in virtual outfits and post pictures directly to Twitter, as well as recreating an old candle game called Joust, but updated with Playstation controllers
Playing Joust (Photo: Chris Scott)
"It was a big hit and a lot of good fun," says Robinson, who also organized the 2011 Edinburgh Twestival. "I really wanted to bring more technology into the event this time."
Lessons learned
Here are a few tips that Twestival veteran organizer Robinson offers to other Twestivals preparing their event:
1. Keep it fun and try to keep it simple
2. Find individuals or sponsors that can take ownership and run with organizing specific aspects of the event, allowing other volunteers to focus elsewhere
3. Bring lots and lots of cake
Join the movement
Want to host your own Twestival?
Check out what events around the world are planned for 2013
Sign up to host one in your own city and support a local cause
How Twestival KL 2009 surpassed its target by 500%
By Niki Cheong
In retrospect, we were more worried than we needed to be.
The first time Kuala Lumpur hosted a Twestival was 2009, and although our core team of David Lian, Ling Chan, Radiance Leong, Suanie and myself had between us bits of experience in organizing events and public relations, none of us had not put together something of this scale before.
We purposely started with a modest fundraising target. Our original plan was just to raise about RM3,000, which would have been enough to purchase a desktop computer and a broadband account for Destiny Starting Point, a home for delinquents in Klang, Malaysia. Since the event was linked to our "Twitterjaya" local social mediasphere, we wanted our gift to empower less fortunate youth through knowledge by giving them easy access to the Internet.
The target shifts
A single sponsor stepped forward and generously met our target with a pledge to provide the home with two computers and Internet access.
So we set a new goal: now we were aiming for RM3,000 in cash that we could donate, which would help the home pay a couple of month’s rent, including some food supply.
Sponsors kept rolling in. We had tapped into our personal contacts to get some of the sponsors on board, but as word got out, we received many messages from others offering to help.
By the day of the event, not only did we have those computers for the home, we also could offer all 200 attendees food at Twestival KL — hot dogs, ice cream, beer, soft drinks and more. We also had items from sponsors to throw into goodie bags for each attendee.
All of this meant that we could justify increasing the cost of our tickets, which of course would help us raise more funds. But that turned out to be just one source for fundsraising.
Bidding up the goal
Many of the sponsorship items were "in kind", and we soon identified a different fundraising opportunity — an auction. We had mobile phones, laptops, sportswear and much more, which people were more than happy to bid up to premium prices for a good cause.
With the help of a couple of local personalities, including former TV and radio host Will Quah and former Miss Universe Malaysia 2003 Elaine Daly, we managed to raise over RM5,000 from the auction alone.
>> Check out what it was like at Twestival KL 2009
Unexpected generosity
That amount was added to proceeds from the sale of tickets, plus the unexpected generosity of many attendees who surprised us by emptying their wallets at the end of the night — we did not even have a fundraising box ready! In the end we raised just over RM10,000.
Including the value of the computers and Internet access, we raised more than five times our initial goal, a major achievement for us. This meant that the Destiny Starting Point home was able to pay their rent and bills for several months.
>> Watch our visit to our charitable cause, Destiny Starting Point
Just the beginning
What was most rewarding was that the formula we found has actually worked a couple of times since.
In 2010, we ran a much smaller-scale event for Twestival Global and easily raised RM3,000. The year after, however, we were ready to take on something big again. That time, we aimed to match the RM10,000 we raised in 2009 — and raised RM26,000 instead.
I’ll share more stories for those two in a different post, but for now I hope this gives you some ideas for fundraising with a Twestival in your city. Good luck in all your fundraising!
3 Ways to Turn Strangers into Friends at Your Twestival
by Jackie Miao, Malaysia (@fooz, Lifebod.com), Twestival Orientation Team
Organizing a grassroots event means that the people who arrive on the big day will likely be strangers from all over your city, and it could be quite a mixed bag of personalities You should be ready to host everyone from the shy to the flamboyant, from networking newbies to veteran socialites.
1. Break the ice with a warm welcome
Start your event right by offering the warmest welcome to people on arrival.
It is important to break the ice with friendly gestures. It pays to be a little radical about hospitality, because it helps put people at ease to loosen up and be themselves, and to feel comfortable about hanging around for a few hours. Just make sure what you decide to do is culturally appropriate in your given city.
For example, you could offer a unique ‘door welcome’ like having a themed-mascot greeting people as they enter.
Disney Channel cartoon character mascots ‘Upin & Ipin’.
A doorman who tests arriving guests with riddles could be a great way to add some intrigue, or if you like it a little more festive, do one of those epic tourism-style VIP welcome band that's full of color and music! Whatever you choose, the idea is to make people feel like there’s a whole lot of fun coming their way and that it's important that they're there.
DJ Cassie from the local Hitz.fm showing off her free movie pass.
For Twestival Kota Kinabalu 2011, we offered welcome drinks and a snack box for the first 100 people to arrive. That really encouraged people to be punctual, in fact, many people arrived an hour earlier just so they wouldn’t lose out on the free munchies!
TIP — Aim to pleasantly surprise people! Make your welcome friendly and maybe just a little bit oddball.
2. Get people talking with engaging displays
After you’ve succeeded in taking down people’s defenses, it’s time to get them mingling with each other!
As an organizer, you won’t be available to play host to hundreds of tweeps once the event starts. Instead, you'll have to find other ways to spark some interaction. Here are a few ideas for how you can engage people.
Make sure you pimp out your event space with lots of things to look at that are related to your cause. The more creative or though-provoking it is, the more it may inspire people to strike up a conversation with the complete stranger standing next to them. For Kota Kinabalu, we hung all the amazing pictures that people from around the world sent in support of our ‘From Everywhere, With Love” campaign.
"From Everywhere, With Love" prints hung at event.
People who walked by were amazed at how much support we received in just two weeks and that really compelled strangers looking at the pictures at the same time to talk to each other. We also pinned newspaper cuttings of the media coverage we had received on the wall.
TIP — Get people thinking and wondering, so they feel the need to ask questions and talk.
3. Build relationships with activities that run throughout the event
Now that you’ve got people talking, you want them to continue having lots of fun with each other. Lighthearted interactive games and activities are a great way to keep the energy going.
Twestival KK chose to support the Sabah Society for the Blind. To give people a small sense of what it feels like to live as a blind person, we created some fun awareness games like blindfolded food tasting and blindfolded darts, and had a Braille machine for people to try their hand at reading with their fingertips.
Blindfolded food-tasting contest.
Braille machine.
TIP — Create experiential games and activities that run throughout the event. Make sure they are constantly interacting with each other, so they have no chance to get bored.
If you take a creative approach with these three tips, you’ll probably have yourself a pretty awesome Twestival. Better yet, by the end of the night, you will likely turn a few strangers into lasting "Twestipals" — the kind who get together to volunteer for future events!
How to choose the right date to host your Twestival
By Christina Lor, Orientation Team Global Lead
Twestival has an important twist for 2013. Instead of every local Twestival being held on the same day everywhere around the world, this year each city or region gets to pick its own date that's right for them.
Well, it all depends on what kind of Twestival you're planning to host. Here are a few tips to consider:
Know your audience — Will this be a young professional crowd or more family-oriented? This will help determine the best day of the week and time of day for your event. Family-oriented events are best set on the weekends and early afternoon. The happy hour crowd tends to favor evenings and could be set during the week.
Location by donation — You may have the perfect venue in mind, but it needs to be either donated-in-kind or covered with a sponsorship, and it may be only available on certain dates. But keep an open mind and think creatively: I have attended Twestivals in art galleries, a funky open-concept real estate office, a cinema/pizza restaurant, and private event locations, and they were all great for different reasons.
Reflect your city — When planning your event, think about ways to celebrate your city or tie into the charity's mission. Either of those two considerations may push you toward a date that is somehow meaningful. Of course, keep an eye out for certain dates when other events are already taking place that might interest your audience.
Align your star power — To help create some buzz around your event, you might be interested in soliciting the support of local celebrities, like athletes, chefs, news anchors, actors or musicians. If their participation is important for your Twestival, check with them (or their publicist) to see if there are dates when they are not available to attend.
Ramp up to greatness — Give yourself enough time to organize something special. Although you can achieve a lot in a short amount of time, some event ideas, like soliciting auction items from your city's sports teams, for example, could take a little longer to pull together. Just don't try to plan too many months ahead — it's important to keep some momentum with your volunteers!
We'd love to hear your experience: how are you selecting one date over another? If you have questions, be sure to contact your Orientation team Twestival mentor. Looking forward to seeing our calendar fill up with events around the world!
The wonderful Shira Lazar (@ShiraLazar), a past organizer of Twestival L.A., gives a complete download on all the excitement surrounding Twestival this year.
Is your city on the map yet?
If not, why not put it there? Get involved, have fun, and make a difference in your community!
With an 11-piece band, a photo booth, amazing giveaways like SxSW tickets and guitar lessons, and over 400 people in attendance, Austin's first Twestival in 2009 was more successful than we'd ever hoped.
1. Pick the venue first — Your ideas will be restricted by your space, so a good venue will help solidify what kind of event you can have. If you don't know a lot of venue owners, go to your network for help.
2. Have a go-to team — We had designated roles based on our skills/talents, such as "Entertainment Coordinator", "Hypemen", "Raffle Master", and "Sponsorship Coordinator". The ability to delegate will help you get more done in less time.
3. Communicate openly — You'll want to aggregate all your plans somewhere like a Group somewhere. It's actually pretty hard to do when things move so fast. Just tweet hints of what's coming, and use IM with your team as needed. You'll end up getting people more excited when they can actually be involved in your process.
4. Have a vision, but have fun with it too — When you tell people about your good cause, they will come to you with all sorts of ways to help. Some of them won't work, but some will. Be flexible and let people in when it makes sense.
5. Write and tweet from the heart — Twestival isn't just another party. You are changing the world. The more genuine you are, the more you'll attract like-minded people who care as much as you do. That's when magic happens.
Now have fun and go be amazing! Hit me up at @michellegreer if you need any tips, tricks, or silly cat photos for encouragement.
Your turn
Do you have questions or tips of your own? Submit them to our blog and we could feature them to our growing global community of Twestival volunteers and organizers!
To help launch our new approach for 2013, we also wanted a whole new look. Last November, we announced a logo contest on crowdSPRING, and donated $500 to a charity of the winner’s choice.
Design with a cause
As a “Give Back” crowdSPRING project in support of a non-profit cause, our logo competition would grant no monetary rewards. But in the spirit of Twestival, we wanted to do something on behalf of the winner to help a worthy cause. So we pledged to make a $500 donation in the name of the winner to the registered nonprofit of the winner’s choice, and likewise, $50 donations to charities on behalf of the runners-up.
In all, we received 76 entries from around the world. The top five designs were chosen by a public vote, with the Twestival global team making the final selection.
Bright, friendly and global
James Stiff (@jamesstiff) a freelance digital designer in Manchester, UK, has helped create websites for more than 15 years, including some work for musical acts like The Rolling Stones. (Check out more of his amazing portfolio here.)
For this logo design competition, Stiff was inspired by the challenge of encompassing everything Twestival was about in a simplistic typographic treatment. “The previous identity was figurative, it had the Twitter birds,” says Stiff. “My interpretation of the brief was that we could move away from that. I wanted to find an abstract way to represent the multicultural, global nature of Twestival.”
But the typographic treatment also had to be quite modular. “It needed to be bright and friendly and global,” says Stiff, “and at the same time, work within the context of the tiniest of avatars on the screen to potentially big banners.”
Typography with the Twestival ethos
After several days of sketching and experimenting, trying to create something, he remembered a free font he had come across only days earlier: Multicolore by Bulgarian graphic designer Ivan Filipov. “There were some really interesting treatments that Ivan had come up with using a nice palate of colours,” says Stiff.
But Stiff was also drawn to how Ivan had given this font away to the web community. “It was a quite generous thing for Ivan to do, to create this typeface and make it available to anyone who wanted to use it, and that seemed in keeping with the ethos of Twestival,” says Stiff. “So it was quite perfect, really, and a no-brainer to just put it together in a way that worked for Twestival.”
In the spirit of Twestival, Stiff contacted Ivan online after he heard in late November that he’d won the competition. “He replied with an email that said he was grateful I had used it in an interesting way,” says Stiff.
Global connections, local impact
It seems only right that a new global, creative connection was made online and ultimately helped a local cause.
Stiff chose to direct the $500 winnings to Wood Street Mission, a charity he has supported for several years that is dedicated to alleviating the affects of poverty on children and families throughout Manchester and Salford, England. “They run a Christmas campaign every year to give toys to kids that otherwise wouldn’t get any,” says Stiff. “They also have quite a creative community behind them, including Friends of Wood Street Mission which put on an exhibition of prints to raise money. I knew they would put the money to good use. I like the opportunity to help out a local charity that does great work and deserves that support.”
Congratulations also goes out to the runners-up in the design competition (in no particular order), who each received $50 toward a charity of their choice:
Hadian Munajat (Radius392 on crowdSPRING), Indonesia — UNICEF Indonesia
Hugo Heredia Vazquez (@hugohhv), Guadalajara, Mexico — My Stuff Bags Foundation
Pearl (@pdot), Vancouver, Canada — ArtStarts
Your turn
Do you have questions or tips of your own about designing a logo for a local Twestival? Submit them to our blog and we could share them with our growing community of Twestival organizers and volunteers!
Do you remember what you were doing on February 12, 2009? I certainly remember where I was — sitting dumbfounded in my London flat with my laptop open to Twitter, watching #Twestival trend worldwide.
Everything had been set in motion just a few weeks earlier, when I began tweeting about an idea for communities in cities around the world to host events on the same day in support of a relatively new non-profit called charity: water.
Amazingly, organizers in 202 cities answered those first tweets, and together, we raised $264,000 to drill more than 50 wells in Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia, helping countless numbers of people get access to clean and safe drinking water.
If you were one of the thousands of volunteers or attendees on that first day, thank you! The success of that first global event inspired us to go further. Since then, hundreds of cities from more than 50 countries have joined in four Twestival campaigns, raising a total of $1.75 million for 285 amazing charities.
Twestival with a twist in 2013
Today, I am excited to announce that we are shaking things up — and thinking even bigger.
In 2013, Twestival will run all year long, giving the growing Twitter communities in every city around the world the opportunity to hold their own event on a date of their choice and rally around a local cause.
Globally, Twestival will become a network of experienced event organizers, fundraisers, social media professionals and partners who will combine our knowledge to offer support to anyone in any city across the globe who wants to join the Twestival movement.
Our vision stays the same — inspiring the world to tweet, meet and give. But our mission, to tap into the power of social media for social good, now shifts to a new approach, helping organizers everywhere to make a difference in their community.
Of course, those who have been a part of Twestival know it is much more than just global charity events. Twestivals are also a great way to connect with others you might only know on social networks (we’ve even heard stories about people who met at Twestival, married and had a baby!). It’s a chance to find inspiration in those who contribute their time and talent to good causes, and explore the many ways cities can give back.
Get organized!
Twestival 2013 is kicking off with events already announced in more than 50 cities — is yours on the map yet? What are you waiting for? Get a team together in your city and pick a date. Find out how you can get involved or simply visit Twestival.com for more information, and start thinking about which cause you want to support! Our teams of Twestival veterans are ready to give you any advice you need!
Share your stories on our new blog
One benefit to holding Twestival all year is that we have more opportunity to share stories and report on the impact of events all around the world. Our new global blog will bring together stories past and present, in words and images that will inform and inspire.
We want to feature as many voices as possible. So have a read, and think about what you have learned or how you have been touched by Twestival, and then submit your ideas for images, videos or blog posts here!
Twestival events in 202 cities around the world joined forces on February 12, 2009 to support charity: water's mission of bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
All of the $264,000 raised was used to drill 50 wells in Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia.
Want to keep helping? Here is a simple way to make a difference: Pledge your birthday here!
Charity: water interactive map
Click the image above to explore an interactive map by charity: water of all 50 wells drilled thanks to Twestival funds, including photos and descriptions of the communities they help.
Life without clean water
Watch four videos chronicling Twestival's 2009 visit to Mai Nibri, Ethiopia to see what it takes to survive without access to clean water — and how one well makes a big difference:
Update from Concern Worldwide: How Twestival helped
Lessons in educating the world’s poorest children
Photo: Esther Havens
Read updates from Twestival-supported Concern Worldwide programs:
• Liberia
• Haiti
• Burundi
• Malawi
• Mozambique
Concern Worldwide is an organization with a long history of working with the world’s poorest of the poor, often in regions of recent conflict. Despite being in operation since 1968, Concern may have one of the lowest profiles of any large non-profit aid organization in the developed world — although in the impoverished regions it targets, it is among the most respected and trusted.
An education in creating opportunity
A primary focus of Concern is education, a chronically underfunded cause due to the long-term commitment required for sustainable programmes, and the perception that it is a government’s responsibility to fund education for its people.
But an estimated 61 million children have no access to even basic education. Not only is education a basic human right, it’s also a prerequisite for greater economic opportunities and living healthier, more productive lives, and therefore a critical component of breaking the cycle of extreme poverty. 120 million children don’t even make it to Grade 4, and a further 130 million children aren’t learning essential literacy and numeracy skills.
A sustained approach built on trust
Committed to long-term cooperation with government ministries, Concern Worldwide works to establish trust among stakeholders at all levels. “We recognize that ministries of education hold responsibility for the provision of primary school and secondary school education,” says Jenny Hobbs, who helped set up the education programme in Liberia and now provides technical support to 11 countries with education initiatives. “We need to identify the government’s priorities and their education sector plans to make sure that our programmes support their goals, and that we are working in areas that are not going to be supported by others.”
Concern often works in extremely remote communities that generally don’t get as much attention as more highly populated urban centers. “We really do go to the poorest communities, and that means no roads, extremely challenging environments,” says Hobbs. “Trying to get qualified staff based out in very rural locations to provide ongoing teacher training, for example, is not an easy process.”
In some locations, like Senyah Town, Liberia, Concern supports the building of a school, but that is just a starting point. Parent and teacher training is always a priority. The school in Senyah Town, for example, has a dedicated room for Saturday training sessions for teachers, including those that walk in from four other nearby communities.
Access, quality and well-being
“The Twestival funding allowed us to take a holistic approach to education,” says Sarah de Tournemire, Director of Development at Concern Worldwide US. “It’s not just about making sure a child has access to a place to go to school, but that they have a teacher that’s qualified to teach them once they’re there, and that they have materials in their mother-tongue language.”
Concern Worldwide approach to education has three pillars: increasing access, improving quality, and improving children’s well-being, so children can be successful learners. Depending on the context, this could be quite a range of issues. As Hobbs notes, the barriers to education in Afghanistan are quite different to the barriers in Sierra Leone or Liberia. "That context has to be identified so mechanisms can be put in place in each country to address them,” says Hobbs.
Assessing root causes
Prior to starting any programme, Concern conducts a careful assessment of what factors are contributing to low rates of quality basic education.
In Malawi, for example, some of the schools were of decent quality, but the country suffers from low attendance, especially of girls, due to gender-based violence and early marriage — a quarter of high school-age girls are already married and drop out. Twestival funds brought education to nearly 19,000 out-of-school girls and vulnerable children in one of Malawi’s most impoverished districts, while also providing training to 197 teachers and 500 School Management Committees and Parent-Teacher Association members, and establishing community support for education through mother's groups and child protection committees. “Twestival funding enabled Concern to work with the parent teacher associations to identify some of the reasons for the girls dropping out," says Hobbs, "and to start putting in protection mechanisms in their community to keep girls in school.”
Concern’s programs address not just access to education, but also the quality of teaching and curriculums, and the child’s well-being at home and at school, including sanitation and health. “Quite often our education programmes are in the same locations where we have wash programs," says Hobbs, "or livelihood programs, in which we’re working at the household level to make sure that, for example, if a child was required for labour on the family farm, that we’re working with that family to improve productivity on the farm so the child can be released to go to school.”
Twestival's impact
“$405,000 is huge in comparison to what’s usually offered for education,” says Dominic MacSorley, acting director of Concern Worldwide. “Without that funding, the projects in the five countries would not have reached the scale that they have. The money that these projects ask for is kind of a last resort — if we don’t raise the money, those components of the project don’t get done.”
It's all the more important, says MacSorley, because education is so often an underserved cause. “Everyone believes in education," says MacSorley, "but not everyone believes it’s something donors should be funding. And I think part of the challenge is with the assumption that it is the state’s responsibility to ensure that they provide education, and it possibly falls a little bit outside of the absolute essential life-saving that some emergency donors focus on.”
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Updates on Concern Worldwide’s 2010 Twestival-funded programs
Liberia — School construction in Senyah Town, Grand Bassa County
Photo: Esther Havens
Highlights:
• $50,000 of Twestival funds
• Construction of Senyah School, a six-classroom furnished school building, with adjacent latrines and a hand-pump well
• 164 students (expected to increase)
• 3,000 families in Senyah Town
• Teachers attending new training center
< Watch a video of Twestival’s visit to Senyah Town >
Before this project, Senyah School had been meeting in the community’s church, with all classes in a single large hall. This was difficult for students and teachers, as there were many distractions, no latrine for children’s use or water for washing hands, and no secure space to store instructional materials.
Today, Senyah School offers two separate blocks with six classrooms, a reading room, a staff room and a principal’s office, latrines with hand-washing facilities and a hand-pump for drinking water. The school compound also includes a separate teaching training room, providing valuable space for on-going government and Concern teacher training.
The teacher training room serves Senya school teachers, but also teachers from four other nearby schools. “The provision of a school there meant a lot to the community and to other schools in the area,” says Hobbs. “It meant we could place two teacher trainers to live out there in Senya and provide continuous support to those teachers and those schools. So it is very meaningful.”
Haiti — Creation of child-friendly educational spaces as part of earthquake emergency response
Photo: Concern Worldwide Haiti
Highlights:
• $100,000 of Twestival funds
• 200 teachers trained — 100 to work in schools that pre-existed the earthquake, and another 100 facilitators and animateurs to work in temporary learning spaces
• 14,600 children were provided access to education, 7,200 through temporary learning spaces
• Indirectly, 24,000 students are estimated to have received education from teachers who received training (approximately 40 students per teacher over 3 years)
< Watch special footage taken March 2010 from Concern Worldwide staff in Haiti >
In the aftermath of Haiti’s cataclysmic 2010 earthquake that made more than 1.5 million people homeless, an estimated 8,000 people lived in a squalid and overcrowded sunken tent settlement at Place de la Paix in Port-au-Prince, often with nothing but a few pieces of plastic sheeting to shelter them from the heavy winter rains.
On the edge of the camp was an unexpected bright spot: a children’s slide, a tiny merry-go-round, a colorful mural — and children gathered together, singing and playing. This was part of Concern Worldwide’s emergency response program in Port-au-Prince: in the midst of some of the largest makeshift camps, Concern had set up education interventions for earthquake-affected children in “Child-Friendly Spaces.” These temporary learning spaces were set up in large tents or existing structures to act as transitional classrooms that offered a refuge for children made homeless by the earthquake. The Child Friendly Spaces offered some 7,200 children instruction in basic reading and writing, as well as arts, crafts and music.
The Concern program also provided a vital sense of safety and stability to vulnerable children whose lives had been disrupted by trauma and shock, offering them with a reliable routine that brought a sense of normalcy back into their lives. “The idea was to create a space where kids could be kids, and continue to receive education as the schools reopened,” says MacSorley.
The Child-Friendly Spaces were staffed by animateurs — local educators with training in music, drama, and art who were hired by Concern to create a transitional curriculum that provided basic learning until the children could be placed in formal education programs and schools.
Concern’s emergency education program in Port-au-Prince concluded as planned in 2012. The impact of the spaces was evident in the students’ performance, with 75% of students across all grades passing their final exams in June 2012. Concern worked directly with permanent schools in Port-au-Prince to make sure that all students had a place to continue their education.
Burundi — Improving access and quality of education for extremely poor and marginalized primary school children in Citiboke province
Photo: Concern Worldwide Burundi
Highlights:
• $100,000 in Twestival funds
• Training head teachers and school management committees in 56 schools in Rugombo and Mugina, which have more than 37,600 students
• Repair and rehabilitation of Rugendo and Munyika primary schools, directly benefiting more than 2,700 children
Citiboke province is one of the poorest rural areas in Burundi. “Classrooms were overcrowded and sometimes we found snakes inside classrooms because the walls were full of fissures,” says Augustin Nijimbere, a 15-year-old student in Grade 6 at Munyika. “We were constantly threatened by a potential collapse.”
“Before the construction, pupils used to sit about five per desk,” says Cynthia Itangishaka, a 28-year-old Grade 5 teacher at Munyika. “We were afraid that the infrastructure could fall down with heavy rain or strong winds. Now I am proud that we have new comfortable classrooms where our school materials can be kept safely. The success, the completion and the enrolment rates will increase as teaching and learning conditions are improved.”
Pupils are now maintaining the new infrastructure through daily cleaning and sweeping classrooms and the school compound.
It was a similar story at Rugendo: “Before, we had to stop our lessons and evacuate the old buildings whenever it rained,” says Spès Ndayininahaze, a 15-year-old female student in Grade 6 at the Rugendo Primary school. “But now even with very heavy rains we continue lessons. I will succeed because I am studying in a safe environment!
At a community level, The Burundi project has also contributed to the improvement of the livelihoods of 233 people as masons and assistant masons.
Following construction and renovations in 2010 and 2011, there are now 1,628 students enrolled in Munyika I Primary School and 1,079 students enrolled in Rugendo Primary School in Cibitoke Province.
Malawi — Promoting equal access to quality primary education for girls and vulnerable children in Nsanje District
Photo: Concern Worldwide Malawi
Highlights:
• $70,926 of Twestival funds
• 4-year program that aims to reach 18,736 out-of-school girls and vulnerable children
• Provide training to 197 teachers, 5 primary education advisors, 500 members of school management committees and parent-teacher associations
• Establish community support for education through 250 mother groups and child protection committees
• Indirectly, program expects to reach 57,497 community members in Mbenje and Tengani
< Watch special footage from Concern Worldwide staff in Malawi >
In one of the most impoverished districts of Malawi, Concern used Twestival funds to bring education to 18,736 out-of-school girls and vulnerable children. The project also provided training to 197 teachers and 500 School Management Committees and PTA members, and worked to establish community support for education through mother's groups and child protection committees.
In 2012, Concern’s education program largely focused on training and capacity building for teachers to improve the quality of education. The program reached approximately 19,800 students and 1,600 adults last year. In 2013, the program will directly support more than 7,700 children in standards 1-3 also in Nsanje.
Mozambique – Advancing Primary Education in Zambezia
Photo: Concern Worldwide Mozambique
Highlights:
• $84,612 of Twestival funds
• Improve access to quality basic education for 21,000 children including 10,000 girls (direct beneficiaries) in 52 schools in Inhassunge and Chinde districts
• Between 2007 and 2011, teachers displayed an increase in child centered pedagogy (from 53% to 81% on a list of 26 items) and integration of child rghts, gender and HIV and AIDS issues in their teaching (from 21% to 78%)
Of the 215 children attending Chimbadzuo, the small remote primary school located an hour’s walk from the main road, 44 are orphans from HIV/AIDS. If it’s not that particular disease ravaging the most disadvantaged areas of Zambezia province in Mozambique, it’s Lethal Yellowing Virus essentially killing off the coconut trees, the principal source of income for the communities, or floods that leave tens of thousands homeless in the rainy season.
But the impoverished population remains determined. School Governing Councils have played active roles talking to the children, especially girls, as early as possible about sexual safety as well as general health and hygiene, and visiting families if a child is absent for even just a few days.
School Governing Councils are a vital part of Concern’s education program in Mozambique, supporting parents and communities to build a belief in education and manage their own schools. The efforts appear to be paying off. Enrolment rates are high, drop-out rates are low and girls represent more than half the attending pupils.
Overall, the percentage of children continuing on in the education system to higher classes has improved, and particularly girls are better represented in the upper grades of lower primary and in upper primary than in 2007. The pass rates in grades 5 and 7 have increased as well, and the increase in the girls in the schools system should provide a virtuous cycle of having more girls reach higher levels of education to inspire more girls and their parents to keep girls in school longer. The girls that were at risk of dropping out but were supported through bursaries from Concern to become teachers in Inhassunge and Chinde have already felt the impact of the intervention.
Ultimately, Concern helps the communities support themselves. The most powerful tool that any education initiative can have is volunteers — volunteers like Maria Chingai, a widowed great grandmother who also looks after her twelve-year-old orphaned grandson and still goes to the fields every day to make sure they have enough to eat. Chingai (above, in pink) is also an active member of the Governing Council of the Chimbadzuo primary school, constantly talking to girls and their parents about why education matters for women.
“Not having an education is like having your eyes open but not being able to see.” — Maria Chingai, Mozambique
