As a summer intern for the Genocide Intervention Network, I’ve experienced a lot of amazing things. It’s been thrilling to watch events like the charges of genocide against al-Bashir, the arrest of Karadzic, and the political fervor of important political elections unfold at one of the sources of the anti-genocide movement. Although I could ramble on for hours about the amazing atmosphere and the even more amazing people in the GI-NET offices, I’d much rather talk about a project I have been working on for my internship: the STAND Now! Facebook application.
When I first came into the offices, my supervisor, Ben Drexler, and I discussed the desire to move beyond merely a group or page on Facebook and expand to the world of Facebook applications. Fortunately for us, the release of the brand-new STAND website gave us a perfect opportunity to test out some of our ideas of creating a dynamic application that people would actually want to use. After a week or two of messing around, we figured out what we wanted to do with it and, after another week or two, are proud to announce the first ever STAND Facebook application!
The application has a plethora of features that fully interact with your standnow.org account. After you add the application, simply sign in with the username and password you use to login to standnow.org to receive access to the following features:
- Display your chapter on your profile page
- Connect with other STAND members
- See the latest news from the blog on your Facebook account
- Find information about your chapter easily
- Check your federal representatives’ DarfurScores
- Utilize the quick links to important websites by GI-NET
- Sign up for the national newsletter
- See the latest STAND campaigns
- Invite your friends to join the anti-genocide movement
It’s very easy and takes only a couple of minutes to enjoy this stylish way to support your STAND chapter; and, even better, we’re still working on adding new features and expanding our reach every day. Be sure to keep looking for updates from the STAND team!
-Matthew Heck, Great Plains High School Regional Outreach Coordinator