A fifteen-year-old schoolboy from Hampton has raised a staggering £9,737.77 for the crisis in Gaza through designing and creating jumpers and shirts, that he has sold to those in his local community and across the country.
Omer Olcer, whose parents are of Turkish origin, sold the tops to friends, family and local community, spreading word of mouth through the mosque. He also spread the word on Instagram allowing him to sell his clothing to a wider audience.
He was moved to raise money for the people of Gaza after October 2023 when he saw what was happening online, as well as speaking to his family about the conflict and the situation in Palestine.
No stranger to fundraising, Omer once raised more than £5,000 for the crisis in Yemen when he was nine years old, creating and selling Eid cards that were delivered as far as San Francisco and Dubai. This year, Omer decided to come up with another innovative approach to raise money for Gaza and managed to organise a highly successful fundraising business.
The money raised will go to Islamic Relief’s Gaza Appeal which will go towards helping families on the ground with essential items. Since October 2023, Islamic Relief have provided over £19.5 million worth of aid and delivered over 20.9 million hot meals in Gaza.
Omer said: “If there’s something you feel passionate about, and there’s loads of things that’s happening across the world similar to Palestine, there’ll always be people out there in the community to help you out, Islamic Relief was quite helpful. In loads of communities, mosques, groups, there’s so many resources you have to raise money.
I’ve always been told what’s going in Palestine by my family, but since October I’ve learnt quite a lot from my family and parents, but also from the community and my mosque, and that makes you want to help. It was initially my little brother’s idea. We came together to sell clothes to raise money but also to spread the story of the Palestinians.”
Eunice Olcer, Omer’s father, commented “It’s one thing just to give money, but to have the conversation, with people wearing the shirts and more and more people hear about it and raises awareness. It’s quite inspirational, and it helps Omer to do more.”
Tufail Hussain, director, Islamic Relief UK said: “This is an incredible effort by Omer and his family mashallah, raising £9,737.77 for our Gaza appeal, and it just goes to show what young people can achieve with a vision and a plan and then some resilience. Today we have this wonderful achievement.
“Throughout Ramadan I saw Omer up and down the country, he was with us in Liverpool and London, and that combined effort has helped to raise this amount. I hope this is an inspiration to other young people, with a plan and hard work you can achieve absolutely anything. In this situation in Gaza every effort to raise awareness, to raise funds is vital.”
People can purchase jumpers and shirts designed by Omer, to raise money for Gaza at https://www.instagram.com/progressive_effort?igsh=eDA2eHZqNjRtMWZ2