Social networking giant Facebook is donating $250,000 (nearly Rs 1.75 crore) for relief work in Kerala, which has been battered by  “one of the worst ever floods”. Nearly 370 people have died in the Kerala floods that have left a traik of destruction across the state.

Facebook said it would donate the money through the Community Resilience Fund for Goonj, a Delhi-based non-profit organisation.

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“In the last few days, Facebook along with the power of the community, has helped reach out to people through features such as Live, creating Page, joining community and raising funds,” said a Facebook spokesperson, adding: “The smallest of all things we have done is that our global community has contributed $250,000 for Goonj fund.”

The Facebook India page with over 212,107,237 following is prompting people to donate through Goonj or Chief Ministers Relief fund.

Unprecedented rains since August 8 have caused one of the worst floods in the history of Kerala, rendering thousands homeless.

People across Facebook have created groups and pages, and posting live videos to raise funds for the flood-hit. Among these groups are Kerala Flood Relief (4,100 members) is coordinating transportation and medical attention, and Flood Technology Support Kerala 2018 (653 members), a group of IT professionals who are gathering information about people who need to be rescued and sharing it with emergency officials. Facebook Pages like Kerala Floods 2018 (12,114 followers), a crowdsourced, consolidated place for updates, and Healthcare Online (449 followers), created by doctors offering medical tips, have popped up all over the world.

Events such as Kerala Flood Relief Aid Collection – Lamakaan have been started to collect relief materials to be donated to camps.

On August 9, Facebook activated its “Safety Check” feature, allowing people to let their friends and family know that they were safe. People could access crisis tools such as Community Help and the Crisis Donate Button to offer or seek help. According to Facebook, these tools garnered more than 1,300 posts from the affected areas, and nearly 500 people have donated using the Crisis Donate Button.

Also, several people stranded in flooded localities and unable to reach authorities used Facebook Live to ask for rescue.

“Following the flooding across Kerala, India, the Facebook community activated Safety Check on Thursday, August 9. Since then, we’ve seen people across the Facebook community use Crisis Response, Groups, Pages, Live, Events and Fundraisers to mobilize support and help those impacted most. For example, two men from Chicago created a fundraiser for relief efforts, raising more than $1.3 million so far,” said the Facebook spokesperson.

Facebook says more than 1,200 people have used Facebook’s “Community Help” to ask for and request help, including food, water, transportation and shelter, while disaster maps have helped the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and NGOs working in the area to mobilise efforts.

These maps track people’s movement and demarcate affected and safe zones, which has also helped the government identify places where rescue and relief were required.

“We will continue to monitor and assess needs in the region. Together, the Facebook community is championing humanity and helping those in distress,” Facebook said in a statement.