Perfil: Sri Lankans Turn To Social Media For Help As Economic Crisis Bites

<p>By Dimuthu Attanayake</p> <p>COLOMBO, June 1 (<a href="https://www.msnbc.com/search/?q=Thomson%20Reuters" rel="dofollow">Thomson Reuters</a> Foundation) - No petrol means no work for Sri Lankan delivery rider Michael Sathis, and getting supplies has become a challenge as fuel stations run dry amid a devastating <a href="https://www.purevolume.com/?s=economic%20crisis" rel="dofollow">economic crisis</a>.</p> <p>Sathis sometimes had to queue all night to fill his tank until he found a Facebook group sharing regular updates on fuel supplies and even queue lengths at gas stations, one of a number of digital initiatives springing up to help struggling citizens.</p> <p>"Finding fuel in this crisis is like looking for a lost needle ... it's almost impossible," said Sathis, 29, who lives just outside the commercial capital Colombo.</p> <p>"But this group is like a magnet - I can find fuel without wasting much time."</p> <p>Sri Lanka is in the throes of its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, battered by a combination of factors including the impact of COVID-19 on its tourism-dependent economy, rising oil prices, and populist tax cuts.</p> <p>A chronic lack of foreign currency has led to rampant inflation, and shortages of imports including fuel, medicine and other essentials.</p> <p>In response, Sri Lankans are increasingly turning to social media platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter to find basic goods and help raise money for the needy.</p> <p>"What we are seeing is innovative ways of using these platforms to meet their direct and specific needs like fuel and other essentials," said Craig Ryder, a digital anthropologist at SOAS, University of London.</p> <p>But the digital divide is a "very real issue" creating uneven access to online spaces, added Ryder, who is researching the relationship between social media and society in Sri Lanka.</p> <p>"Discrepancies persist ... between cities and rural areas, northern and southern Sri Lanka, men and women, rich and poor, young and old," he said.</p> <p>SOCIAL MEDIA BLACKOUT</p> <p>Worldwide, social media platforms have played an increasingly important role in helping people connect to resources and essential services at times of crisis, including during the COVID-19 pandemic website when people took to Facebook and Twitter to find hospital beds, oxygen and vaccines.</p> <p>In Sri Lanka, many also find it easier to make requests online because they feel less inhibited in virtual spaces, said Prasad Jayaweera, a professor of computer science at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.</p> <p>"Sri Lankans are generally not comfortable asking for help. But being on social media allows people to behave differently, as there is no in-person interaction, but only through a profile," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.</p> <p>There are more than 11 million internet users in Sri Lanka, or about half the population, according to a digital report website by marketing firm Kepios, including about 7.1 million Facebook users at the start of the year, and nearly 300,000 on Twitter.</p> <p>As protests against the government's handling of the crisis turned violent in early April, authorities imposed a nationwide social media blackout for about 15 hours "to maintain calm" - a move that drew criticism from within government.</p> <p>CHARITY LIFELINES</p> <p>Fundraisers are turning to online platforms to raise money for the needy, and distribute it to organisations working with families that may have no or limited access to the internet.</p> <p>"Social media helped us identify those who were doing the work on the ground, or were at least connected to those who did," said Thushanthi Ponweera, a children's author who set up a fundraising drive on Twitter and Instagram.</p> <p>"Seeing updates from these individuals and charities on social media was useful for judging credibility, and deciding who we could help," she said, adding the campaign had raised more than $4,000 (1.4 million Sri Lankan rupees) for charities.</p> <p>Another charity, Community Meal Share, provides about 1,000 meals each week for poor families in the western and central provinces and gets the bulk of its funding online, said co-founder Nadeeka Jayasinghe, a former nurse.</p> <p>"Social media helped us to expand immensely - more than 80% of our funds come through well-wishers on social media," said Jayasinghe, while they got a temporary dining space for free in April through a "lovely lady we met on the internet".</p> <p>"Twitter has helped us to connect with international donors, too," said Jayasinghe, <a href="https://reactos.org/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=78566" rel="dofollow">equationhelp</a> whose charity received money from a fundraiser in London.</p> <p>MIXED SUCCESSES</p> <p>Twitter has also helped hospitals get much-needed supplies and cash.</p> <p>At a maternity hospital in Colombo, a medical officer who wished to remain anonymous said his posts on Twitter and other social media sites netted about 3 million Sri Lankan rupees worth of donations, including drugs and supplies.</p> <p>"This will help maintain daily care of the patients, and also assist the hospital to manage emergencies," he said.</p> <p>Donations on Twitter helped a hospital in the country's north provide emergency care even as it cancelled routine surgeries, said a medical officer using the nickname Puvi, as government doctors are not allowed to speak to the media.</p> <p>"I posted widely on Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp - most donations came through Twitter," she said.</p> <p>But with hundreds of people regularly queuing in Colombo for scant fuel supplies, social media has not been able to help fill the gaps for everyone.</p> <p>Shakeel Hafeez, a delivery rider for a food app, is a member of the same Facebook group that Sathis uses for updates on fuel availability.</p> <p>On a recent weekday, Hafeez arrived at 5 a.m.<p> </p><p> </p>
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at a fuel station about six km from his home in Dehiwala, a suburb of Colombo. But it soon ran out of fuel.</p> <p>He went to four more outlets, following updates from the group, but they all ran out of petrol as he waited in queues.</p> <p>"I waited for more than five hours at one place, but I couldn't find petrol," said Hafeez, 37.</p> <p>"I just wasted my time and got back home. I couldn't make any deliveries that day."</p> <p>($1 = 354.0000 Sri Lankan rupees) (Reporting by Dimuthu Attanayake; Editing by Rina Chandran and Sonia Elks.<p> </p><p> </p>
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