In four days, defying the laws of indifference, Jérôme Jarre managed to charter ten planes loaded with food and water for Somalia.
“I was just on the phone with a volunteer in Somalia who just saw a six-year-old girl die in front of him, dehydrated after she walked 150 km with her mom in search of water.” It is with these words that a 27-year-old French YouTuber, Jérôme Jarre, has managed to generate a surge of solidarity on social networks vis-à-vis a phenomenon that has nevertheless been overlooked and immersed in indifference: famine in Somalia.
It is sometimes mentioned in the newspapers, when the UN makes its desperate appeals, but the Western population and its leaders do not care. Somalia is far away, famine is sad, but it is also abstract.
It took a 26-year-old young man, a renowned Internet user from the former “Vines” network, known more for his jokes than for his humanitarian commitment, to raise awareness. A call on Twitter and suddenly, these “20 million people in East Africa who have no more water, no more livestock, no more food and who are about to experience the worst famine” become an unbearable reality for the citizens of the world.
???? MAINSTREAM MEDIA WON’T TALK ABOUT IT !!!
REVOLTING !!!
LET’S MAKE NOISE !!!#TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia ???? pic.twitter.com/iiyQrzyLC9
– JÉRÔME JARRE (@jeromejarre) March 15, 2017
Filling up a plane
Jérôme Jarre launched a crazy challenge on the web. “What if we find a plane, fill it with food, fill it with water, and send it over to Somalia?” There, I know people who can take care of food and water and distribute it to the right people ”. Problem: only Turkish Airlines serves Mogadishu, the Somali capital. So we have to call on the company. In two clicks was born the hashtag #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia, relayed en masse; in four days, 1.8 million dollars (1.7 million euros) were collected.
It is not a plane that will leave for Mogadishu, but ten, loaded with food and water. Not enough to reduce the famine in Somalia, however.
Less audible than Jérôme Jarre, the UN launched an appeal on Wednesday. Some 864 million dollars (802 million euros) are needed to stem this crisis in 2017, she warns, but only 31% has been collected.
More than half of the 6.2 million Somalis are in need of emergency food assistance, including nearly 363,000 severely malnourished children. The appeal for donors will likely be revised upwards to take into account the growing humanitarian risk in the region.
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