On Saturday, GoFundMe announced the Sonali Famine Relief campaign, also known as the Love Army For Somalia, which was launched by Jérôme Jarre along with Ben Stiller, Juanpa Zurita, and Casey Neistat, successfully secured more than $1 million less than 24 hours after its debut on the global crowdfunding platform. The initiative is seeking $2 million to fill a Turkish Airline plane with food and has so far raised more than $1.8 million from over 64,200 supporters.
According to the campaign, the first flight to Somalia is planned for March 27th, and later flights will continue to send supplies. The initiative organizers also announced they have partnered with the American Refugee Committee’s team on the ground to distribute the goods, which will include rice, vegetable cooking oil, nutritional biscuits, flour, sugar, and porridge.
“For the first flight, we will buy the food in Istanbul, as a thank you to our Turkish friends that supports the movement! Later on, we are hoping to learn how to buy food directly from local businesses in Somalia. We want to support the Somalian economy.”
Speaking about the campaign’s progress, Rob Solomon, CEO and Chairman of GoFundMe, stated:
“In less than 24 hours, ‘Love Army For Somalia’ has been shared tens of thousands of times and has quickly become a powerful movement around the world. Donors from 125 countries have united to help those in need in Somalia, so far raising over $1 million. GoFundMe has donated $50,000 to show our full support of this important effort. We are grateful be a part of the #LoveArmyForSomalia.”
Funds from the Somalia initiative will also go towards delivering water trucks. The campaign’s organizers added:
“For water, we’ve learned from multiple NGOs on the ground, that the most sustainable thing to do is get water trucks to be delivered. Each water truck is about $250 and about 2000 liters Those 2000 litters will support approximately 100 families of 6 people.”
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