Teen Vogue
Monday March 20, 2017
“Internet you did it!” Tweeted Vine and Snap star Jérôme Jarre. He’s got a reason to celebrate; celebrities banded together to raise money to help fight famine in Somalia and to care for its residents who were affected by a severe drought.
(According to a video posted by Ben Stiller, about 6 million people are in danger of dying due to the famine.)
The International Organization for Migration reports that the drought is affecting people’s wages and food and water prices. Moreover, “animal deaths are increasing, malnutrition rates are starting to rise,” and many people are “moving in growing numbers in search of food and water. Without assistance, many people face malnutrition, significantly increased risk of disease, loss of livelihoods and even death.” It’s being compared to the famine of 2010-2012, which took the lives of over 250,000 people. Already this drought which started in 2015, has been declared a national disaster.
So Jérôme joined up with his Zoolander 2 costar, as well as influencers and celebrities like athlete Colin Kaepaernik to raise awareness about the famine, posting a special hashtag to Twitter that quickly picked up steam. Each also posted quick videos to share information about what’s going on in Somalia.
The Tweet soon turned into a social media campaign and a GoFundMe started by Jérôme, Stiller, Juanpa Zurita, and Casey Neistat. Jerome’s goal was not only to spread the word about the devastating famine, but to catch the attention of Turkish Airlines so they could fill a plane with food, water, and supplies and fly it to Somalia. In just two days, the #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia GoFundMe has raised over $1.6 million, with a $3 million goal.
Moreover, Turkish Airlines agreed to fly supplies to Somalia. According to the GoFundMe page, they’re going to ship food containers to the country via their planes until the famine ends. If you want to help, you can donate at the GoFundMe page or make your own short video to help raise awareness.