humans., a photography-based social platform inspired by Humans of New York, was founded in Nov. 2015 by NYU Shanghai undergraduate students Musa Malik and Alexandru Grigoras and NYU Shanghai faculty member Keith Ross. As the founders come from the different cultural backgrounds of Pakistan, Romania and the United States, the need to work towards a socially connected global community is central to their ideology and thus to the social startup. “Hatred comes from ignorance. The more people know about one another, the more understanding they become. I want to bring people together,” commented Malik. “I truly believe that despite all these superficial differences, at the end of the day we’re not that different at all. We may wear different clothes, speak with different accents, but we all love and cry the same way.” Following the launch of its official phone app in Nov. 2015, humans. received the status of a Public Benefit Corporation from the Delaware Secretary of State for its vision of raising cross-cultural awareness and promoting global tolerance. This mantra is reflected by the interactive world map available on the app, which uses different shades of green to represent countries; the countries with the most stories have the darkest shade. which allows the green colour of a country to increasingly become darker as more stories are received from there. “The vision is to make the world map entirely green. It is a symbolic gesture to one day see a world without barriers,” added Malik.In addition to educating and connecting the global community, humans. wants to empower talented and undiscovered photographers around the world by giving them an opportunity to showcase their portraits to a global audience. This goal also aims to provide a refreshing counterbalance at a time where “selfies” are the norm, and thus provides a chance for the true purpose of photography to come back: taking pictures of those on the other side of the lens, rather than ourselves. Despite its recent beginnings, humans. has already managed to attract contributors from nearly forty different countries, and has already collected thousands of different stories.Achievements:The team working behind humans. believes that the social startup is successfully fulfilling the role as a public benefit corporation by advancing the social cause of promoting cultural tolerance between global communities. By gaining contributors from different regions, they are also empowering photographers across the world who want to make human portraiture and storytelling their profession. The technology behind the phone app is regularly updated and advanced to support user interactivity, and has also allowed accessibility for iOS users through native mobile development. The humans. platform has been a collective effort to engage with stories from all over the world. The project is also currently working alongside company interns who truly believe in this grassroots startup. The interns assist with management and editorial tasks while developing their own professional and creative talents. “By giving them more responsibility as they prove themselves through rigor and hard work, we are also cultivating their leadership potential, something I am a huge advocate of,” commented Malik. The social startup is extremely proud to be able to provide the opportunity to talented, ambitious photographers to travel within and outside of their native communities to pursue their photography goals. One of their biggest achievements has also been working on and facilitating the publishing of the first ever photo-book from contributions of the company’s most prolific and talented storytellers. The photo-books were gifted to a select number of social organisations in Pakistan, China, and England in June 2016. Kickstarter Campaign:humans. recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for further progress of humans.As a public benefit corporation, the company is looking to raise enough money to pay for the necessary maintenance and administrative costs. Such fundraising is especially needed when a platform is launched without any prior funding and works solely on the efforts of students who believe in cross-culturalism and tolerance.You can donate to their Kickstarter fund here.You can follow updates about the startup and visa contributions through their Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram. The project’s phone app is also compatible with iOS and Android and can be downloaded via the App store and the Google Play Store. This article was written by Lathika Chandra Mouli. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: humans.