Aleppo has been weighing on\u00a0the hearts of the entire world after the\u00a0outpour of bone-chilling messages on social media by citizens, journalists, and activists still in the city, many\u00a0claiming to be saying their goodbyes. In the\u00a0wake of these desperate dispatches, a Facebook fundraiser started by Basel Termanini has asked for $1.5 million to \u201chelp the medical needs of the civilian victims of the air strikes and shelling in besieged Aleppo.\u201d It\u2019s been enormously successful, becoming the first ever Facebook fundraiser to eclipse the $1 million mark. More than\u00a023,000 people from over 60 countries have donated to the cause in support of the Syrian American Medical Society Foundation (SAMS).<\/p>\n
Last September, libertarian candidate Gary Johnson stammered on\u00a0Morning Joe\u00a0<\/em>when asked what he would do about Aleppo if elected. He blurted out, \u201cAbout?\u201d The presidential candidate had no idea where one of the world\u2019s largest refugee crises was happening. And, not only that, he was smug about it. \u201cAnd what is Aleppo?\u201d he huffed when Mike\u00a0Barnicle asked him about the Syrian city.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since that snafu,\u00a0a great many people have come to know a great deal about Aleppo:\u00a0how airstrikes and ground swells have engulfed the city in a debris-filled haze;\u00a0how the last hospital was bombed to oblivion, leaving survivors without access to life-saving surgery, medical personnel, and essential medical equipment; and, more recently,\u00a0how the last rebel-held portions of the city were being closed in on by government forces.\u00a0<\/p>\n The news largely came\u00a0from the civilians themselves\u00a0via social media. Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, and others have become a surreal lens through which to see the crisis. The outpouring from these voices\u2014convinced that they are at death\u2019s door\u2014has been frightening. But it has also transformed into urgency. An urgency that is fueling this fundraiser to reach a\u00a0never-before-attained Facebook fundraiser goal.<\/p>\n The updates from the page are encouraging. As we speak, the SAMS team is transporting the injured to busses that will\u00a0then transport them to Idlib province, on the other side of the front lines.<\/p>\n \u201cFinally the medical evacuation process has started and nearly 8,000 patients and injured medical staff were transported to Idlib province,\u201d says Basel. \u201cThe amazing thing is that at the exact same time, at 7:20 a.m., when this fund reached $1,000,000 in collections, the first ambulance carrying the injured reached safety at the other side of the front line, a coincide? I think not!\u201d<\/p>\n We think not, indeed. With four days left, the Facebook\u00a0fund needs your help more than ever. We reached out to Basel Termanini, though he was unavailable. But through his messages,\u00a0we know that he and others on the ground in Aleppo are overjoyed at how close the fund is to reaching its goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aleppo has been weighing on\u00a0the hearts of the entire world after the\u00a0outpour of bone-chilling messages on social media by citizens, journalists, and activists still in the city, many\u00a0claiming to be saying their goodbyes. In the\u00a0wake of these desperate dispatches, a Facebook fundraiser started by Basel Termanini has asked for $1.5 million to \u201chelp the medical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}