It's bad
With the Top 3 charities that provided meals to starving people all pulling out this week, it has quickly gotten much worse than even I expected.
Good Afternoon from Brooklyn,
Earlier this morning we had an earthquake here in New York that shook the city for about 20 seconds, but the only thing that is on my mind is Gaza.
With the Top 3 charities that provided meals to starving people all pulling out this week, it has quickly gotten much worse than even I expected. It’s bad.
Nearly 300,000 meals per day that were being provided have disappeared in an instant. The food shipments that were on their way to Gaza from those charities were all told to turn back. And the impact is being felt RIGHT NOW.
That’s why I am pleading with you to please donate today. Our charity partner on the ground, Human Concern International, which is completely led by Palestinians in Gaza and outside of Gaza, has suddenly become one of the most important charities there.
Please click here to donate, OK? We just crossed $2.5 million but my prayer is that we cross $3 million before Ramadan ends.
That means we have 5 days left to raise $500,000 more. Can you help today?
I am proud to announce that on Wednesday we had the #1 fundraiser in the world on LaunchGood. And hear my heart - I am SO proud of this. I mean it - I am nothing but proud, but sisters and brothers it’s not enough.
Here are 10 videos of our Hot Meals Program in Gaza.
I am painfully aware that every single day I ask these men to prepare and distribute this food that they are literally risking death. And because they aren’t white, but are Palestinian, if they are killed, the governments of the world don’t move an inch. In fact, 200 Palestinian aid workers have already been slaughtered in Gaza and it never made headline news.
So far 25,000 of you have donated $2.5 million. But I need you to understand that World Central Kitchen had a budget last year TWO HUNDRED TIMES that size - and it’s believed that they raised and spent way more than that this past year.
Please my friends - CHIP IN HERE TODAY, OK?
It’s 100% tax deductible.
Processing fees are optional at checkout.
Your donation goes not to me, but to the brilliant charity Human Concern.
If you are a Muslim, this donation is Zakat-verified.
It’s verified by LaunchGood.
I provided proof of our good work in 10 videos above.
I don’t know what else we could do!
Please make your best donation today, OK?
Love and appreciate each of you!
Your friend and brother,
Shaun
PS: My previous emails are below if you want to catch up
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Good Morning My Friend,
The past 48 hours have been 2 of the worst days in Gaza of this entire genocide. And after the United States and Israel slaughtered 7 aid workers from the World Central Kitchen, both the World Central Kitchen - which was providing 200,000 hot meals per day, and Anera, which was the second largest meal provider in Gaza, announced that they are pulling out of Gaza, and suspending all operations.
No doubt, this was the goal of Israel in the first place. From the start of this genocide they have done everything they can to starve the people and this accomplishes that goal.
Please click here to give today!
Your donation is 100% tax deductible, goes to one of the most reputable charities in the space, and will be put to use on the ground in Gaza right away.
World Central Kitchen was actually my motivation for starting this project in the first place, but I never imagined anything would happen that would cause them to pull out of Gaza. With only a week left in Ramadan, my plan was for us to feed people for these 30 days, then pass the baton back to groups that I thought would be on the ground for the long haul, but that clearly is not possible right now.
Our community kitchens in Gaza are 100% staffed by local Palestinians. Our program manager is Palestinian. Our global director is Palestinian. They couldn’t leave if they wanted to. So we are forging ahead - but we truly cannot do it without you.
24,730 generous donors have given at this link so far. But my new goal is to get us to 50,000 donors. Honestly, even that won’t be enough, but it is far enough away to motivate me to keep pushing forward.
Last year, the World Central Kitchen raised and spent over $500 million dollars. That’s how they were able to do what they were doing. So far we’ve raised $2 million. See the difference? We are only scratching the surface here.
As usual, I am rushing to get my kids ready for school before a very busy day.
I am sorry that I am putting so much pressure on you all, but I don’t know any other way. I love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun
PS: My previous emails are below
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Good evening,
998 of you have donated today to help expand our hot meals project in Gaza and I am SO grateful to each of you. We’ve raised nearly $100,000 today and I’m having to do this without my Instagram account that was really the central nervous system of my fundraising for the past 10 years.
I was going to say that we need to double that, but the honest truth is that we need all of you to donate. The need on the ground is so big that I truly need every person reading this to chip in with the others. I am sorry to press so hard - and I wouldn’t do so unless it was necessary.
Please donate here today and join them.
We are going to have to scale up everything we are doing now that the single largest provider of meals just pulled out of Gaza. It is going to have a devastating impact right away.
Can you please donate tonight?
Here is our team on the ground distributing food just yesterday.
Love and appreciate you all,
Shaun
PS: My previous emails are below
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Good Morning from Brooklyn,
I am literally late driving my kids to school so that I can send you this message. Forgive any typos or errors - I don’t have time to proofread this morning.
I come to you this morning with grave news and a very urgent announcement. Please promise me you will read everything I say here. It’s the most important email I’ve ever sent in my life.
GRAVE NEWS
Yesterday, Israel and the United States did something that I can hardly imagine - they deliberately dropped a bomb on a clearly identified car of staff from the internationally award winning charity World Central Kitchen and killed every single person inside - from the Palestinian driver to the European and Australian staff of World Central Kitchen, and anybody that was even near them.
I absolutely adore the team from World Central Kitchen. My wife and I are monthly donors to the organization. And their work in Gaza was my inspiration to start my own Ramadan Hot Meal Program in Gaza.
Moments ago, World Central Kitchen, which fed more people in Gaza than any other single charity - over 200,000 people per day on some days, just announced that they are suspending their operations. They also announced that they had given the Israeli military their locations, were in a zone that was supposed to be “bomb-free” and they were slaughtered anyway.
It is the belief of experts on the ground that Israel bombed them SO THAT WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN WOULD LEAVE GAZA. They want to starve the people to death and WCK was feeding 10% of the country per day. Israel grew to hate this and hate them and they killed them for it. And the United States provided the bombs and jets and drones they used to do it. These are clear war crimes.
I want you to imagine for a moment that Palestinians or Muslims slaughtered staff from World Central Kitchen. It would not only be the #1 news story in the world, we’d never hear the end of it - and for good reason. Entire TV specials would be dedicated to those that were killed. Instead, this morning I can hardly even find the news. Israel and the United States are the single least accountable nations on this planet.
URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT
After a staggering 22,831 of you donated $2,135,284 for my Ramadan Meals Program in Gaza, I felt like I had raised enough money for the program and could pivot and raise money for a health clinic in Gaza. I will still need to raise funds to support the clinic, but suddenly the need for our charity partner in Gaza, Human Concern International, to provide meals has just skyrocketed.
I am begging you, from the bottom of my heart, to please donate more today. If you have already donated, can you please donate again? If you have not donated, can you please donate immediately?
Your donations are 100% tax deductible. The funds go directly to the charity and will be used to purchase more food, hire more staff, start more emergency community kitchens, and provide more hot meals to families and people in need.
You can give right here, OK? To explain how critical the need is, World Central Kitchen was spending millions of dollars PER DAY to provide the meals they were cooking for people. PER DAY! That’s what I hoped to have last for the entire month of Ramadan.
This meal program is not just for Muslims. But if you are a Muslim, please know that your donation is Zakat-certified by scholars at LaunchGood. And that Allah blesses us beyond measure when we donate during the final 10 days of Ramadan.
I have to run! I am late taking my kids to school.
Your friend and brother.
Love and appreciate you all,
Shaun
PS: My previous emails are below
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Hello My Friends,
WOW! Since yesterday, over 3,000 of you chipped in to support our Ramadan meal program in Gaza. We’ve now opened up 4 community kitchens and are providing tens of thousands of meals PER DAY. You can learn all about it and chip in HERE.
I want to address a few very important questions and provide very clear answers.
100% of your donation goes to the charity and the charity alone. Even the crowdfunding platform we are using doesn’t take a fee. I do not receive the money and never have and never will. Period.
Many people said “I thought no food was getting into Gaza, how are you getting food in?” Almost no food at all is getting to the 700,000 Palestinians living in the North. Food for sale and food aid gets in daily through Rafah in the South. It’s not enough. Not even close, but it gets in. Our charity partners have had aid get in. We also work with butchers, farmers, merchants, traders, shop owners, and other aid organizations to get whatever we need. It’s brutally difficult.
Palestinians LEAD this project. They lead every aspect of the project in Gaza. My point of contact with our charity partner, Human Concern International, is Palestinian, and our project lead is Palestinian. I am simply raising the money for Palestinians.
It costs us nearly $100,000 per day to run this program but we will be able to provide over 600,000 meals during Ramadan. It’s not enough, but the prayer of my heart is that our efforts, combined with the efforts of others, will make sure that more people are being fed in Gaza than we’ve seen these past 5+ horrible months of the genocide.
Please chip in here today, OK? We’ve raised nearly $1 million but to run this program it will cost us over $3 million for the month.
Love and appreciate you all,
Shaun
PS: My previous emails are below
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Hello My Friends,
First off, I want to thank you all for your love and support of me, of my wife, Dr. Rai, and of the big decisions and work going on in our lives.
On Sunday evening, we converted to Islam by saying our Shahada with Imam Omar Suleiman and the beautiful people of the Valley Ranch Islamic Center in Dallas, Texas. It was one of the single most special moments of our lives. Here it is if you have not seen it.
I have so much more to tell you about how this came to be and will do so a little bit daily as I can.
We are into our second full day of Ramadan and find it to be a very special and holy time for us. We are praying five times a day and fasting during the daylight from food and drinks alongside more than 1 billion Muslims around the world. We are also purifying our hearts and intentions every day - and learning the many new practices of Islam that are an adjustment for us. We are humbled and honored to be on this journey.
For me, so much of this is about Gaza. I have considered Islam since I was 14 years old (that’s 30 years ago), but it has been my close personal relationships with men and women and families in Gaza that has shown me Islam up close and personal and inspired me to make this decision. I’ve walked hundreds of Palestinian families through grief, hunger, and despair and have seen them still proclaim their faith and belief in God. It impacted my soul in profound ways - and continues to every single day. I have so many other reasons to share, but I must start there.
It’s why I am asking you to join 7,861 people from all over the world who’ve decided to make sure people are fed in Gaza during Ramadan. Tomorrow I will show you all of the new photos and videos of our meal program in Gaza. We’ve opened up two kitchens and have already provided tens of thousands of hot and nutritious meals and food boxes.
In fact, if you go ahead and follow me on TikTok HERE I’ve posted brand new videos and photos there of all of our work so that you can see it for yourself.
It costs us nearly $100,000 per day to run this program but we will be able to provide over 600,000 meals during Ramadan. It’s not enough, but the prayer of my heart is that our efforts, combined with the efforts of others, will make sure that more people are being fed in Gaza than we’ve seen these past 5+ horrible months of the genocide.
Please chip in here today, OK? We’ve raised nearly $1 million but to run this program it will cost us over $3 million for the month.
Love and appreciate you all,
Shaun