“I don’t know what word to use besides miraculous, because it’s restored a faith in humanity,” Marcus said. Saraya International, a global development firm, and the Rockefeller Foundation, which both provided organizational support for the flight to Uganda, as well as another company involved with the evacuation, confirmed to the AP that the flight was chartered by the emergency collaboration financed through Marcus' Go FundMe campaign. “It’s beyond humbling that they have that faith in me, that they’re willing to put significant amounts of money into hands that I trust,” Marcus told The Associated Press. More than 121,000 people had donated to the campaign after Marcus made an appeal to his 832,000 followers, making it one of the largest humanitarian fundraisers in GoFundMe’s history. On Wednesday, their mission “Operation Flyaway” helped ferry 51 people from Afghanistan to Uganda on a privately chartered plane financed by the GoFundMe campaign. Along with his followers, Quarantino raised $7 million within days on GoFundMe to launch rescue missions into Afghanistan to evacuate as many people as possible, many of whom said they had been threatened by the Taliban. Quarantino is the alter ego of 25-year-old Tommy Marcus of New York City, previously best-known for his liberal memes and his jokes about opponents of COVID-19 vaccinations. withdrawal from Kabul made it to safety with help from an unexpected place: Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino. To date, we’ve seen an overwhelming response to this effort, with over 357,000 visitors to this page.Dozens of desperate Afghans who had been trying to flee the Taliban before Tuesday's deadline for the U.S. “We also encourage anyone interested in getting involved with Airbnb to visit /help-ukraine and support Airbnb’s initiative to provide housing for refugees fleeing Ukraine, by becoming a host or making a donation. Airbnb is temporarily waiving guest and host fees on bookings in Ukraine at this time. Mr Marcus said the “controversies” around the Afghanistan campaign were “difficult for me, emotionally”, but said he wanted to continue using his platform to help people.Īn Airbnb spokesperson told PA: “We are so humbled by the inspiring generosity of our community at this time of crisis. In September 2021, The Washington Post published a report saying more than $3m (£2.5m) had been spent on canceled flights. In 2021, his campaign raised $7m (£5.3m) to help at-risk Afghans escape Taliban takeover by paying for flights. But at the end of the day, you should also give money to charities, wherever you see fit. It’s going to make someone really happy and hopefully have an impact there. “It’s just another really cool thing you can do. Marcus also said that donations through Airbnb should not replace the support efforts of existing charities. “The main thing that was shared when this started going viral was to make sure it was an individual person, rather than a company that might own a bunch of apartments across the city … also seeing that they have a story, they have critics. He warned, however, that people should check the Airbnb listing before booking to make sure they know who will be getting the money. charity, but there’s definitely this emotional element that’s unique about it, which I think is probably a really big determining factor and why it was so viral. That doesn’t mean that money doesn’t go as far when you donate it to charity. “And that might not be something that happens when you donate $20 (£15) to charity. He told PA: ‘I definitely didn’t plan for this to go so viral…so many of my followers have been telling me ‘I got this message (of gratitude from a Ukrainian) and immediately started to to cry “. The hosts’ reply messages are so moving /ai2Je8VKCt 24 hours later, hundreds of people are booking AirBnBs in Ukraine to send immediate financial aid to people living in hard-hit areas. Yesterday I shared an idea to support Ukraine by booking rooms for rent on AirBNB. He added that subscribers have now received messages of gratitude from Ukrainians who have received bookings through Airbnb. Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Marcus said the idea originally came from one of his social media followers.
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