Ahmed Mohamed is receiving tons of support, not only through encouraging messages on social media but also, in money.
Last Monday, Mohamed, a muslim teenager, was arrested in Texas for fabricating a home made clock that his teachers mistaken for a bomb. Consequently, the crowdfunding platform, LaunchGood started a campaign to raise 100K for the 14-year-old boy. In just one day, the site had raised over 10,000 dollars from over 200 sponsors. They expect to reach their goal of 100,000, by October 13th.
“The support has been incredible”, said Chris Abdur-Rahman Blauvelt, CEO of LaunchGood, a site that supports projects launched by muslims or projects related to the history of Islam and its studies. “It happened so fast after after the news spread about Mohamed’s arrest”, added Blauvelt, who created LaunchGood in 2013.
“I built the watch to impress my teacher, but when I showed it to her she thought it was a threat. It was very sad for me that she got the wrong idea about my watch”, added Mohamed during a press conference. His arrest provoked riots in the web-stream and attracted the nation-wide support towards the teenage boy. Including president Obama, and Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Blauvelt claims that his campaign has the approval from the Mohamed Family. He addressed that half of the money donated will go directly into an Educational Fund for Mohamed and the rest will go to the initiatives that raise creativity and inventiveness in little kids. On top of LaunchGood, Gofundme also launched a campaign in support of Mohamed’s cause. They’ve raised more than 4,000 dollars out of a goal of 60,000. The money will go towards Mohamed college tuition bill.