MySpace Brings Humanitarian Organization into View

Open a newspaper or magazine, turn on a television, or connect to the Internet, and chances are very good that you will find a news article about MySpace. The three-year-old social networking site has risen meteorically to become the fastest-growing website of its kind, attracting hundreds of thousands of new members every day. And with that growth comes a field of detractors and those who see the website as a potential monster, an online haven where people congregate for less than savory reasons. However, what many fail to realize is that MySpace is having a positive impact in many areas, not least of which is the humanitarian arena. 

Meet Ms. Kishmir Burke and her organization, Hands Across Africa Relief International (HAARI). HAARI is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing aid to underdeveloped, war-torn, and poverty-stricken areas of the world. As the name would imply, the organization focuses its energies and resources on the continent of Africa, but Burke, the founder of HAARI, sees a future that brings HAARI’s efforts to bear on any locale where such is needed. Working with churches, private corporations, and individual donors, the operation currently maintains a food bank and gathers clothing to send to overseas, church-run distribution centers. According to the organization’s website, their mission is to ‘provide health care, pure water supply, emergency food and clothing, emergency shelter and permanent housing, education and employment opportunities, transportation and secular and spiritual counseling’ for thousands of displaced families living in places that have seen catastrophe and loss.