Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed Help Raise $1 Million for Syrian Refugees

Share:

Five of the world’s kindest authors came together this week to make a kind of holiday miracle happen: they encouraged the Western world to donate $1 million to be given to Syrian refugees, and it worked.

Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed, Glennon Doyle Melton, Rob Bell, and Brené Brown worked through the charity The Compassion Collective to raise donations of up to $25 for the Syrian refugees. Over the course of 31 hours, and with more than 40,000 donations, they reached their goal of $1 million. The group celebrated on their respective Facebook pages.

Strayed posted:

When the world is dark, we must be the light. On the darkest days of the year- LIGHT WON. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Gilbert, in a similar vein, wrote “You are the light of the world, and this is the best Christmas of my life.”

This may seem like a small amount of money for the approximately 6.5 million people displaced in the Syrian region, but seeing as many countries have not welcomed refugees warmly, it seems to be an astronomically significant number.

(h/t Los Angeles Times)