My home state, Victoria in Australia, has been subjected to the worst bushfires in Australia's recorded history. Many tens of thousands of hectares of land have been burned, hundreds of homes lost and the human toll is expected to reach 300 people. I have several friends who have lost loved ones and I have friends who have been trapped by the flames and had to defend their properties and lives. To give some context to the severity of the fires - a fire rated at a severity level of 100 is considered to be uncontrollable. The Victorian fires were rated at 400.

Given that many thousands of people are currently homeless and living in makeshift tent cities, it's not surprising that they lack for many of the things we all take for granted. On Monday I received this email:

If anyone has any mobile phone chargers, they are in need in Whittlesea. Please drop them off to church office by mid morning Tuesday

It's funny how it's the small the things that we take for granted. But how does one source mobile phone chargers? Sure, there are probably hundreds or thousands of these lying spare in people's homes from phones that have been replaced but how do we get to them? It turns out that you only have to ask - in the right place.

I put a request out through some email lists I'm on and Twitter. My message on Twitter simply asked for mobile phone chargers for the bushfires and asked folks to SMS me or send me a message via Twitter. My original request was retweeted many times and by the next morning I had about 50 chargers, mobile phones and other accessories. In addition Nokia have supplied 300 chargers and Motorola and their PR agency have come up with some more phones and chargers.

This post isn't about me - it's about all the people who've freely given to support those who've suffered. And it's about the power of tools like Twitter. Many have dismissed Twitter and being useless but this week it's proven its worth in uniting strangers to a common cause.