A viral fundraiser appearing to be against supporting Afghan refugees is not all what it seems and is actually a clever social media stunt aimed at doing the complete opposite.
The fundraiser was created by blogger Simon Harris and is called “HELP ARE OWN FIRST”. It says:
“I have started this fundraiser because at the moment too many people seem to have forgotten that WE SHOULD BE HELPING ARE OWN FIRST!!
“All money will be used to help ARE OWN.”
So far, so fishy. But a quick scroll reveals the fundraiser’s true purpose. It then says:
“For the purposes of this appeal, ‘ARE OWN’ refers explicitly to Afghan families who are currently being resettled in the United Kingdom.
“This is because a lot of them risked their lives to help our armed forces and government officials with translation, interpreting and other tasks during the last twenty years, and to be honest even if they didn’t, the United Kingdom may have had the teeniest, tiniest, weeniest role to play in this whole s**tshow.”
If Harris sounds familiar, that’s because he is the same man responsible for trolling Nigel Farage by fundraising for an RNLI hovercraft named after him, following the politician criticising the charity.
People loved that campaign and he raised over £40,000.
Now, reacting to his new fundraiser, people on social media thought it was equally brilliant.
This is great. Top shithousery. https://t.co/DOjYr7SqMj
— Ryan, the Creator (@rtrudgeon) August 22, 2021
Misjudged "Help Are Own First".
— Ben Nichols (@Nichols_09) August 22, 2021
Lesson learnt, actually read it before judging. 👍
True Patriots and people who understand WAR should HELP ARE OWN
— Will Black (@WillBlackWriter) August 21, 2021
Please share this - especially with good, patriotic Brexit voters
PLEASE RT and DONATE
https://t.co/P1dTlmn3rb
i have donated to help Are Own and make Britain great for once!!!!111 https://t.co/OHyxRZsiir
— Sooz Kempner (@SoozUK) August 21, 2021
Preparing myself for a Twitter rant until I read the page… ha ha ha ha genius👏🏼 https://t.co/NWZQDbSeKx
— Hollie J📝 (@HollieJMedia) August 22, 2021
This "Help Are Own First" crowd funder is frikkin genius.
— ℓουℓου 🕷❤ (@SkiptomyLoulou) August 21, 2021
All the xenophobic Afghan haters are donating to help the very people they want to keep out of the country 😂
Read the small print in the next tweet 👀 https://t.co/TVnjOAMSfq
Awesome 👏🏻 https://t.co/BlFaWutFh2
— Michael Masa (@MichaelCaleigh) August 22, 2021
At the time of writing, £10,090 has been raised in the fundraiser. The money will go to local organisation Community Agents Essex who will support Afghan refugees settle in England.
Speaking to indy100, Harris said:
“I am massively encouraged to once again see the compassionate voices drowning out the bigots.”
Us too.
