THE INTERNET SHARING HUMANITY
The #LoveArmyforSomalia filled up a Turkish Airlines airplane with 60 tons of food to help the humanitarian crisis in Somalia.
On March 10, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the UN, Stephen O’Brien announced the worst humanitarian crisis since World War two. Somalia, Yemen, South Soudan, and Nigeria are the four countries of East Africa that are suffering through a massive famine.
Internet Influencer, Jerome Jarre decided to speak up about the situation since this crisis wasn’t getting much attention from the media. Other celebrities like Juanpa Zurita, Ben Stiller, Chakabars and Casey Neistat tagged along with Jerome’s idea. His idea was to get Turkish Airlines‘ attention to let them fill one of their planes with food, and to distribute it to Somalia since it is the only airline that travels there.
Of course, to get an airlines attention you need a lot of people onboard. It only took one day to receive an approval from Turkish Airlines due to the hashtag #TurkishAirlinesforSomalia.
As big as that achievement was, Jerome and his friends needed money to buy the food. Thanks to the generosity of people across the world through the internet, around 85,000 people donated. They received over two million dollars in less than 48 hours on March 16.
Thanks to all the people who contributed to this humanitarian cause through the internet with the hashtag #LoveArmyforSomalia: a total of 60 tons of food were delivered to Somalia along with 90,000 liters of water.
The internet has helped in the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945. This act of kindness has helped a part of the 20 million people who are unfortunately part of this famine. The distribution of food and water has helped to create jobs in Somalia and create long-term solutions to avoid another one of these crises in the future.
Written By: Paola Lopez Velasco
