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The internet has come together to help Somalia, thanks to one Snapchat celebrity and an airline

2 min read

Better Society

The movement started with a crazy idea, and within 24 hours they had convinced an airline to lend them a cargo plane and raised over $1M to fill it with emergency supplies.

The hashtag #Turkish AirlinesHelpSomalia worked, and the airline offered their support.

After French Vine and Snapchat star, Jérôme Jarre read about the famine in Somalia he set up a movement called Love Army For Somalia. The hope was that social media pressure might convince Turkish Airlines, the only carrier to fly to the African country, to spare one flight to send a shipment of aid and food to the drought-stricken region ‘providing immediate relief for immediate need’.

At least 6.2 million people in Somalia are affected by the drought. That's over half of the country's population. Source: Facebook/AJ+English

More than $1.0M goal raised by 39,444 people in just 23 hours.

Together with comedian Ben Stiller and YouTube star Casey Neistat, the movement soon gained traction. At the time of writing this article, the GoFundMe page has so far raised $1,084,582 of $1.0M goal. Bear in mind that was a 10-day target, and they smashed it in less than 24 hours.

Turkish Airlines were quick to respond to the trending hashtag  #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia and offer their assistance. A huge thank you to everybody at Turkish Airlines for their generous support.

'Not only they are making available a full cargo flight that can fly 60 TONS OF FOOD, but they agreed to let us ship food containers on their commercial aircraft to Somalia, UNTIL THE END OF THE FAMINE!' – Jérôme Jarre
Turkish Airlines soon responded to the trending hashtag #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia ‘Not only they are making available a full cargo flight that can fly 60 TONS OF FOOD, but they agreed to let us ship food containers on their commercial aircraft to Somalia, UNTIL THE END OF THE FAMINE!’ – Jérôme Jarre Source: gofundme/lovearmyforsomalia
After gaining 7 million followers on Vine, Jarre made an account on Snapchat and started using the platform where he makes two-minute narratives for telling stories.
Jérôme Jarre is a French entrepreneur, Vine star, and Snapchat star After gaining 7 million followers on Vine, Jarre made an account on Snapchat and started using the platform where he makes two-minute narratives for telling stories. Source: Youtube/JeromeJarre

“We have 10 days to get a million dollars!” – Casey Neistat In fact 23 hours was all it took to raise one million dollars. The power of social media is indeed mighty! Source: Youtube/CaseyNeistat

How they intend to use the GoFundMe collection.

On their GoFundMe page, Jarre says

‘This is the food we want to give:

– Rice

– Vegetable cooking oil

– Nutritional biscuits

– Flour

– Sugar

– 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.

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 litres will support approximately 100 families of 6 people.

We are not sure how much you will all be able to contribute, or how many difficulties are gonna rise as we execute our mission. But we know our hearts united together are unstoppable, and if we keep using our hearts we will keep making the right moves, and this movement will achieve its goal.’

Make an Impact

Donate DIRECT to the Love Army For Somalia GoFundMe page:

The first 60 tons of famine relief and emergency supplies will cost $1M, but continued support will be an ongoing situation. If you wish to contribute to the cause simply click the link to be taken directly to the Love Army For Somalia GoFundMe page