World Central Kitchen and pouring water
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Julio Salado: Using social media as a force for good

By Adam Ford and Ose Schwab It was a tweet that helped Julio Salado find the World Central Kitchen in Przemyśl, Poland, where he spent one week distributing food to displaced Ukrainians crossing the border to Poland. “Social media is a vital tool to connect and network and find opportunities to help people in crisis,” says Salado, a Malden resident, a fitness trainer and CEO of Fitness Foundry. “I created a post on Twitter in early March saying I am looking to find an organization. That’s all I did.” A response to his tweet gave him a tip that he followed. By April, Salado crowdfunded $5,635, exceeding his initial gofundme goal of $2,400. Salado then spent a week helping distribute food at the Polish border of Ukraine, while generating media attention to raise awareness about the situation there. War has waged in Eastern Ukraine for over three months after Russian forces invaded the neighboring country. The war has impacted civilians’ access to basic needs such as food and water, and the World Food program estimates […]