Internet Artist Raises $6 Million in One Day to Rescue Afghans Targeted By Taliban

A New Yorker has launched a highly successful GoFundMe campaign to get at-risk Afghans out of the country as quickly as possible.

Internet meme artist Quentin Quarantino GoFundMe campaign raised $ 550,000 in just two hours. Now, after just one day, the total has skyrocketed to $ 6 million and is still climbing.

After two decades of US military intervention and its recent withdrawal, the extremist Taliban group has returned to power, specifically targeting certain individuals and their families.

The GoFundMe campaign hopes to help these human rights lawyers, activists, translators, journalists and artists, all of whom are “at imminent risk” of being killed.

Asylum seekers will be transported in family groups and the funds raised so far should translate into the evacuation of thousands of refugees.

If you do the math, Quarantino says that every $ 550,000 he will buy two planes from Kabul. According to the GoFundMe page, “Every $ 1,500 raised represents a seat on one of the planes and a life saved.”

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Tommy Marcus, known by his pandemic pseudonym Quentin Quarantino, is a University of Michigan graduate who donned the alter ego in the early days of COVID-19 as a fun way to deal with the stresses of life locked up. Initially, by posting funny memes, the reflections morphed into serious social commentary.

“The Internet can be a force for good,” said Quarantino in his Instagram page, which currently has more than 767,000 followers. “Raising five million dollars in less than 24 hours for this rescue mission has given us and many around the world hope for humanity. Most importantly, it is a direct line to attempt safe passage for Afghans in distress. “

The staggering total of funds raised so quickly is a testament to the human spirit that Quarantino finds humiliating.

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“The amount of impact this will have and the lives it will save is so fascinating that no word I can put in this tweet will do it justice,” he posted.

If you want to add anything to the appeal, go to GoFundMe page here. Anything that remains will go to the International Women’s Media Foundation to assist in its efforts to protect people at risk. women journalists in Afghanistan.

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