It’s no small feat when an individual fundraises S$7 million and counting. Gilbert Goh has done just that for the Palestinians in Gaza.
His humanitarian activism began after a divorce at the age of 52. “I’d lost everything—my house, family, money. It got me thinking, ‘Is this my life until I die?’” he recounts. After a year of reflection, he threw himself into humanitarian work and found himself invited to a humanitarian initiative in Lebanon. “I wasn’t comfortable with going, because it’s a war-torn country, but I’m glad I did because I found my cause.”
This led him to visiting Lebanon twice a year for eight years straight, each time to distribute food and winter aid to Syrian and Palestinian refugees under Love Aid Singapore, a humanitarian group he founded. Then the 7 October attack happened.
“Many Singaporeans said to me, ‘Why don’t you help the people in Gaza? It’s so near where you are’. It wasn’t my area of focus because I didn’t have any contacts, so I went to Cairo to meet someone who could link me up.”
Goh hadn’t intended on staying in Cairo, Egypt, for more than two weeks. He’d already booked his air ticket home, but felt obligated to delay his flight every time funds poured in. The sum amounted to $1 million within the first three months.
“I hadn’t seen donations like that before and knew this was different, so I kept changing my air ticket. Every time I was like, ‘I need to go home’, things would happen and I’d need to stay back. I ended up staying for six months.”
He currently channels all of his efforts into helping Palestinians in Gaza. Although he has yet to step foot in the territory, he has helped establish a polyclinic, an early childcare centre for orphans, four tented schools, and several field kitchens with the funds raised.
He spent the better part of last year in Cairo and Beirut, Lebanon, just to stay close to what’s happening on the ground.
“The proximity and environment allow me to be more in tune emotionally.”
Gilbert Goh on parking himself in the Middle East despite the risks
Because risk is part and parcel of his work, vigilance is the name of his game every mission: he switches Airbnb apartments often, stays in at night, refrains from socialising, and stores the relevant funds as cryptocurrency, he lets on. But he acknowledges the plausibility of one day being held at gunpoint out of sheer misfortune. “It’s one of my biggest worries because I’m always alone, but I take precautions.”
Good thing, then, that he will have companions when he travels to the West Bank this month. The group hopes to set up a base in the territory to better facilitate aid.
Goh chuckles when asked about misconceptions about this line of work. “They aren’t misconceptions. All of the beliefs are true,” he says with an even heartier laugh. It might thus be surprising that his biggest challenge in his expeditions lies in, of all things, the differences in language and culture.
“The miscommunication hurts. It doesn’t help. But looking at the bigger picture—helping refugees—helps me override these obstacles.”
Goh turns 64 this year and hopes to find a successor in time to come even though he knows it’s a calling few will accept. “It’s a difficult and dangerous job. They will have to be very compassionate,” he avers.
But should he be able to pass the baton, he knows just how he wants to live out the rest of his years: “I’ll spend more time with my daughter.”
Photography Mun Kong
Art direction Ed Harland
Hair Vic Hwang using Kevin Murphy
Makeup Rina Sim using MAC
Photography assistant Alfred Phang
