Facebook Saved My Friend

Recently I had a friend go missing in Brazil. He moved to Rio just a few weeks ago and was taking courses to become certified to teach English over there. He was staying with a host family, and after 2 days of not hearing from him (and not responding to friends or family) the host family started to get worried.

My friend was determined missing on Sept. 2nd. Immediately, one of his close friends created a Facebook group (click me to see the group) and started to spread the word through the use of networking. The Facebook group is how I even found out he was missing. I (among others) posted statuses asking friends to join the group and to talk to local newspapers, news stations, etc. Within 7 days, the group grew to 684 members and we were notified yesterday morning that he was found (in a random Brazilian hospital with no form of identification on him).

He's alive and we all know instantly because now the group is a form of helping him and his family. Friends have created a joint account to donate to his family (for medical bills and the plane ticket and such). The networking power of Facebook helped find my friend and now it's continuing to help him and his family.

The word of mouth method of spreading news is greatly amplified by Facebook. I have roughly 800 "friends" that might have seen my statuses, and some of them could have joined and posted a status to reach their hundreds of "friends" and the process goes on and on. I'm so relieved that my friend was found, and this solidified my admiration for Facebook. Thank you, Facebook!

Below are some links to articles posted:

The Independent Alligator

The News Herald