The Facebook Blog

The following is part of our "Your Stories" series on different ways Facebook is used across the world. Submit your story to us and we'll consider featuring it in future posts.


At 6:30 in the morning on April 24, Jeremy Graber awoke to the sound of sirens and the smell of smoke engulfing his neighborhood in Canal Fulton, Ohio. As soon as he stepped out of his home, half the roof was ablaze at the nearby 20-unit apartment complex (video).

...Fire, police and the Red Cross quickly responded to the scene to make sure all of the residents were evacuated safely. Everyone escaped, except two pet hamsters and a pet turtle.

Jeremy, Margarita and Ken (left to right)

As he stood witnessing the evacuation, Jeremy logged on to Facebook through his mobile phone and messaged Ken and Margarita Roberts to figure out how they could help the fire victims. The Roberts are the owners of New2MeToday, a resale shop that coordinates the local youth community outreach program REACH and is housed in a four-story historic warehouse complete with a banquet hall.

"I am an amateur ham radio operator so I'm somewhat familiar with disaster and emergency response" Jeremy said. "But I had never done anything like this before. Nobody had."

Before the smoke had cleared, Jeremy began posting about the fire on a Facebook group for Canal Fulton, requesting that clothing and furniture for fire victims be dropped off at New2MeToday. His call turned into an outpouring of help across the community.

Concerned neighbors and townspeople immediately began calling in and bringing in donations. Local volunteers began sorting through the bags and boxes filling up the banquet hall at New2MeToday as Margarita jotted down the names and numbers of the victims and what they needed.

At around 11 a.m. that same day, Pastor Dave Derry from True Life Community Church visited the apartment complex and learned that the fire had mostly displaced families with babies and young children. The fire happened so quickly and so early in the morning that the victims left all of their belongings behind. Using the church's community fund, he bought baby bottles, formula, diapers and baby wipes.

Some of the victims were elderly and didn't drive, while others had their car keys scorched in the fire. So Pastor Derry also started shuttling them to New2MeToday so they could get clothing.

On that windy, rainy Saturday morning, Ken recalled, "we had people coming in to the shop with no jackets and wet socks."

Jeremy kept updating the Facebook group with how neighbors could help the fire victims. As word spread quickly, local business owners banded together and offered assistance. The family-owned Pizza Parlor delivered free pizza, soda and water for the volunteers sorting donations at New2MeToday. The manager of the First Merit Bank, also a REACH adviser, set up an account for cash donations for the victims.

Days after the fire, Jeremy noticed a need to find the displaced families more permanent housing beyond the three-day hotel stays the Red Cross was providing.

"This apartment complex was subsidized," Jeremy said. "Nobody had renters insurance and nobody really had any means to replace what was lost."

A local campground, Clays' Park Resort, responded by offering three cabins to house the victims until Labor Day.

Shortly before 3 p.m. the day of the fire, Jeremy, Ken and Margarita began planning a benefit dinner, raffle and silent auction to help out the victims. On May 8, exactly two weeks after the fire, the benefit, held at New2MeToday's banquet hall, helped raise $4,200 for the 13 families that had lost their homes. The benefit went so far beyond their initial expectations that they ended up providing assistance to an additional 72 local families.

Jeremy never thought he would end up using Facebook as emergency response, but it provided "basically flawless coordination having my friends and business networks all in place." By its end, the community effort spawned from a Facebook post even spread across state boundaries.

"I got a call from someone in Michigan who had heard about what had happened through Facebook," Ken said. "They wanted to help, but they didn't know where Canal Fulton, Ohio, was."


Oscar, a San Francisco-based freelance writer and contributor to the Facebook Blog, feels bad for those families who lost a pet hamster in a fire.

The following is part of our "Your Stories" series on different ways Facebook is used across the world. If you have a story you'd like to share with us, please submit it here.


The last days Abdi Mohamed lived in his homeland of Somalia were spent in fear. Weeks earlier, in 1991, civil war had broken out across the African country, bringing violence to his doorstep.

..."The situation was bad," Abdi recalled. "I escaped with my dear life after the warring militia looted everything I owned."

Searching for safety, Abdi traveled for days through what the U.N. deems one of the most dangerous regions in the world. He arrived at the Kenyan border, where a branch of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) soon transferred him to the Hagadera refugee camp in Northern Kenya.

At Hagadera, now home to 135,000 refugees, Abdi began working for CARE International, one of the more than 20 world relief organizations there. He started as an elementary school teacher, then became a store clerk distributing food.

Because of his work, Abdi was one of the lucky few to have an Internet connection in a part of the world where coverage is rare. He became a crucial link between refugees in the camp and those who had left.

"People who had left were always sending me e-mails asking me to update them on what was going on," Abdi said. "Once out, it's difficult to keep in touch with the people back in the camp."

Abdi turned to Facebook in 2008 to help him reach out and connect Somali refugees from all over the world who had spent time at Hagadera. He created the Facebook group "HAGADARIANS ON FACEBOOK," which has grown to 400 members.

When the group began, only a few of the refugees were aware of Facebook. But once they heard about the group, they flocked to Abdi for help in opening an account so they too could connect with current and former refugees around the world.

"It became the best forum to keep in touch considering the prohibitive prices they used to pay for calling their friends from the refugee camp," Abdi said.

"HAGADARIANS ON FACEBOOK" has become the place to get the latest news and updates on the refugee camp –from how the camp observed World Refugee Day to a Human Rights Watch report on police abuse of refugees in Kenya. With a simple Wall post or comment, group members can share their news or join a discussion.



The discussion board is particularly active. Current and past residents discuss topics such as relief efforts, life in the refugee camp, resettlement in a third country and ways in which peace may be restored to their respective homelands.

For his part, Abdi, who left the camp last year to attend university in Canada, is focused on attracting more former Hagaderian refugees now living around the world. His goal is to form an international coalition, powered by social media, to raise awareness about issues such as the poor living conditions in the camp and the exploitation of refugee labor.

He already has noticed a member-driven effort spring up in recent months—a proposal for raising funds to deliver school supplies to a refugee-funded school in Hagadera. While logistics made that plan too difficult to complete, Abdi remains hopeful.

"The will is there," Abdi said of the group's members. "I am optimistic that we can at least do something to give back to the community."


Oscar, a San Francisco-based freelance writer and contributor to the Facebook Blog, remembers the day in elementary school he first learned about the U.N.