How Edward Norton, Humans of New York, and craigconnects are Supporting Syrian Refugees

Folks, I know many of you follow Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York (HONY) initiative. Brandon returned from a trip to Jordan and Turkey, where he interviewed twelve Syrian families that will be living in the U.S. These families have been through a lot of hardship. Since Friday night my team and I have been working with CrowdRise to raise money to support one of these families as they still face tough times ahead. The Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund is matching the next $10,000 donated.

The deal is, if you can spare a few bucks you will really be helping people like this who lost his wife and daughter when a missile tore through the house that he built for them in Syria. This father [featured above] is also battling stomach cancer and has not been able to afford treatment due to lack of health insurance.

As Edward said, 100% of funds raised on CrowdRise “will go directly to this family to help the father get the medical treatment he needs to live and pursue his work, to help his family build a new stable life after their tragedy, and…as the Scientist beautifully expresses…to support his dream of contributing to the world.”

All donations are tax-deductible. So far we’ve raised over $337,000, which is a real good start.

“He [doesn’t] want to die before making a contribution to humanity, and he [feels] that he’s running out of time. While listening to him, I kept imagining how difficult it would be for him to focus on any sort of research while starting a new life in America.

Despite his lofty accomplishments [as a scientist], he might have to take whatever job [or two] he could get just to keep up with rent. Hopefully this fundraiser will change that, insuring that he can focus his amazing mind on his dream of changing the world,” said Brandon.