A man known to the world as Quentin Quarantino, not to be mistaken for director Quentin Tarantino, has managed to raise more than $6 million to help rescue Afghans and fly them out of the country.
The New Yorker, whose Instagram page is known for his memes and other news posts, decided to use his platform to help those in need at this time of crisis. Less than a week ago, Quarantino posted his intentions of setting up a GoFundMe pageto raise funds to fly helpless Afghans out of the now Taliban-run country. Incredibly, when it first launched, the page managed to raise $550,000 in a span of two hours alone.
Quarantino listed his monetary goal at $6,050,000, but since donations started rolling in from its 117.6k donors, it has managed to raise $6,866,130 so far, and that number is still rising.
Although the United States military has been in Afghanistan for at least two decades, they have had long-term plans to withdraw from the country. Unfortunately, with the fall of the current Afghan government, the extremist group known as the Taliban managed to quickly take over the country once more, forcing people – mostly women and children – fearing for their lives due to the Taliban’s vicious attacks on the innocent.
Meanwhile, other individuals and groups have also been targeted by the extremist group, such as activists, journalists, human rights lawyers, and artists that have spoken up against the Taliban over the years are all “at imminent risk of being executed by the Taliban.”
The funds raised by this GoFundMe page will be focused precisely on evacuating many of these people, or groups of families, and other asylum seekers out of the country to safely.
Quarantino explained that $550,000 can buy at least two airplanes full of people out of Kabul. As explained on the page, “Every $1,500 raised represents a seat on one of the planes, and a life saved.”
For those that don’t know who Quentin Quarantino is, his real name is Tommy Marcus and he’s actually a graduate of the University of Michigan. He decided to take on an alter ego known as Quentin Quarantino during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. His purpose was to find a way to deal with the stress and anxiety that came along with being locked down and isolated due to the virus. The Instagram page originally began as a place for him to post hilarious memes, but recently, he also realized that he could use the platform for more serious forms of reflection and thoughts, hence his goal to rescue helpless Afghans.
Quarantino, who has 818,000 followers on his IG page so far explained, “The internet can be a force for good. Raising five million dollars in less than 24 hours for this rescue mission has given us, and so many around the world, hope for humanity. Most importantly, it’s a direct line to attempt safe passage for Afghans in danger.”
Moreover, the fact that people have continued to donate money to his cause out of the goodness of their hearts, only goes to show that there is still so much good in the world. In fact, Quarantino himself shared that it has been humbling, to say the least.
He wrote, “The amount of impact this is going to have and the lives it will save is so mesmerizing that no words I can put in this tweet will do it justice.”
The operation now has a name, known as Operation Flyaway, and it is also known as “one of the largest humanitarian efforts in GoFundMe’s history.” And if all goes according to plan, not only is it a true testament of the human spirit, but it will save thousands of lives from suffering at the horrific hands of the Taliban.
For anyone that would like to make a donation, you can check out the GoFundMe page here. The page also explains that should there be money left over from the mission, it will be used by the International Women’s Media Foundation in their efforts to help protect female journalists in Afghanistan that are at risk.
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