The use of technology and social media for effective advocacy and awareness was a key topic in New York during the High Level Summit. The Social Good Summit held close to the UN, highlighted a range of ways in which technology is improving our ability to get messages out.

The Face Up to It Campaign

Prior to the Summit, the World Heart Federation took part in a Facebook campaign with the aim of gathering support for the NCD Summit and more broadly to raise awareness among the general public of the NCD issue. The campaign, entitled Face Up to It, consisted of an internet application linked to Facebook that asked the user to upload a picture to show their support in the fight against cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease.  150,000 people worldwide petitioned world leaders to face up to the global crisis of NCDs by adding their face.   Livestrong, a partner of the NCD Alliance, created a video portraying the campaign that was shown in Times Square in New York during the UN Summit.  Was your face shown in Times Square ?  Watch the video to find out!

The Get the Message Campaign

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados and the InterAmerican Heart Foundation, as a part of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, also hosted an event on Friday 16 September to present the outcomes of their “Get the Message Campaign” which encouraged people to send text messages of support for NCDs using their mobile phone. The HCC gathered over 500,000 messages of support prior to the opening day of the Summit suggesting that within low resource settings, mobile phones are an effective way of spreading a message and galvanizing support for a cause. Mobile phones are increasingly being used in low income settings to assist patients and case workers with the management of disease as was addressed by a recent article in The Lancet.