A Tipperary woman is hosting a sleepout outside the Irish Embassy in Warsaw tonight, in an attempt to raise awareness about the ongoing situation in Gaza.
Amy Sweeney has been based in Krakow for the past three years while working as a primary teacher in a British school there.
She has already hosted a sleepout in Krakow outside the US Consulate with many friends and strangers turning up to show their support.
Tonight she will host her second one, hoping to gain more attention on the ongoing conflict.
As well as raising awareness about the situation in Gaza, Amy is raising funds for a trapped family there.
She had been travelling in Egypt and made friends with a man there who had friends in Palestine.
He put Amy in touch with the family so that she could offer help and support.
"At the beginning, she was very hesitant. She didn't want to ask for help and really these people are admirable in their positivity," she told Beat News.
The conflict had destroyed the family's home and they were fundraising for it to be rebuilt, which is no longer possible.
Amy decided to help in their fundraising campaign, which is instead to help them cross the border into safety.
The family consists of parents and their two young daughters. One is five and the other is two and a half.
Amy knew she had to think quickly in terms of helping with the fundraiser and that's where the idea of a sleepout came from.
Heading into her second one tonight, Amy's helped to raise over €10,000 for the family.
"I'm so grateful for anybody who's donated even €1, but unfortunately, and I'm not being ungrateful, it's not enough because €10,000 is not going to get them anything. The goal on the GoFundMe is €25,000. If we can get €20,000, we have enough to let them cross the border. Anything after that is just to help them survive when they get to Egypt," she said.
"I'm really begging at this point for people to help. So, if you're putting it off until tomorrow to donate, or next week, please, it's urgent. Every hour makes a big difference," Amy added.
If you want to donate to help the family, you can do so by clicking here.
In terms of people ignoring the situation in Gaza, Amy says she can understand it but that it needs to be seen.
"Many people have said, 'Oh, I've just stopped watching it because it's too disgusting' and I can appreciate that. I don't enjoy watching it either. It is traumatic. It is horrible but videos are just 30 seconds and this is people's reality. They can't turn it off after 30 seconds. People are living this every single day," she said.
Amy says America are as much to blame in this as Israel, and we in the Western world continue to fund and support it daily, perhaps without even knowing.
"We can change a huge part of this. There are so many brands that we need to boycott. The main ones are Starbucks and McDonald's. People are kind of claiming as just normal, everyday people, we can't do anything. People need to understand that by doing these small things every day, if everyone does it, of course it makes a big change," she said.
"Everyone kind of has this attitude of 'Leave it to the next person. What can I do? I'm just one person,' you know, we're billions of people all together. So if everyone could stop having this attitude, we could make such a big impact," Amy added.
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