Egyptians using Twitter to raise money

Twitter is a force in Egypt and local activists hope it will be a way of raising money for a charity to support popular development projects in the country.

Started by blogger and activist Mahmoud Salem, the “Tweetback” on Thursday is hopeful of raising funds for what he said were projects that “aim to effect real change in the lives of Egyptians.”

It comes as antagonism with the protesters in Tahrir Square, who have camped out since July 8 demanding further reforms and speedy trials for former government officials, has sparked a publicity battle for the activists, including Salem, a popular blogger.

Thursday’s event, however, hopes to raise money in an effort to boost development projects in the country, where approximately half the 80 million people live on less than $2 per day.

“Tweetback invites companies, foundations and charitable individuals to pledge donations to select NGOs and development projects in Egypt. In exchange, (tweetback’s) network of some of the country’s most notable twitter bloggers will announce the contributions in Arabic and English through their network of nearly 250,000+ followers (at the time of writing), providing donor organizations unprecedented access to their followers,” Salem wrote on his blog.

He continued to say that the initiative aims to make the most of social media’s power to “generate positive change” by organizing events, each in support of a worthy local cause.