S.O.U.P.

Supporters Of Unoccupied Palestine

Nov 08, 2024

Did you know Palestinians cannot open their own crowdfunding campaigns?

Many of my friends in Gaza have had friends or family members abroad host their crowdfunding campaigns since January. During this time, some have made $800, some $25,000 or more. This money has trickled in, allowing them to buy food and medical care.

These friends are among the privileged and lucky because they had access to a bank account outside of Gaza with friends or family, access to a phone and electricity to beg for donations from strangers online, found people early on to help and support their campaigns, and usually knew some amount of English to help them communicate.

It hurts to call my friends privileged because they are also starving, sick, and traumatized.

However, there are those in Gaza who, for more than a year, have been unable to find anyone to host their crowdfunding campaign. They haven’t even had the resources to buy half an onion. They’ve been forced to rely exclusively on aid (which is rarely given out to people and most often sold instead) and to go into massive debt to feed their children. Very dangerous debt.

Here is what I encourage:

Agree to host a crowdfunding campaign for someone in Gaza. I promise to do all the hard work; I have many people already vetted and verified just waiting for someone to host. I have created a step-by-step guide on how to start a campaign on chuffed.org. My other friends at S.O.U.P. and I are always available to help you with questions and support you. You will link the campaign to your bank account (I recommend starting a new checking account for free), and then you will wire or Paypal the money that gets donated to the person in Gaza. I have done this many times and can help you with the whole process. Start by filling out this form.

This literally costs you no money. The time it takes to set up is less than an hour. The amount of times you will send money over will likely be once a month, or every other month. But without you, they have no access to any money and no ability to safely buy food or medicine.

The need is great, and the cost is low.