Gebirah Selected as a Semi-Finalist for the 2025 QBE AcceliCITY Humanitarian Challenge

tonytangebirah
Dec 4
4 min read

After returning from a 3-week mission in Hong Kong working with refugees and the marginalised, I had a ton of emails to clear from my inbox. Scanning through the headers for urgent ones, something caught my eye. It was a notification that carried significance for a small Catholic humanitarian organisation like ours.

Gebirah had been invited from a global search to join the 2025 QBE AcceliCITY Humanitarian Challenge — and selected as a semi-finalist.

There was no sense of triumph or self-congratulation in that moment. Instead, what we felt was affirmation: a recognition of the work our volunteers, partners, and supporters have poured into serving marginalised communities across Asia. A recognition that faith-driven humanitarian work, when done quietly and consistently, does get noticed, thanks to God.

About the QBE AcceliCITY Humanitarian Challenge — and why it matters

The Challenge, hosted by Humanitech (an initiative of the Australian Red Cross), in partnership with the QBE Foundation and Leading Cities, identifies technology-enabled solutions that improve humanitarian outcomes in real communities.

This year, only 30 innovators across 14 countries were selected to form the 2025 cohort — each tackling real problems around disaster resilience, climate adaptation, community-driven response systems, and equitable access to life-saving information.

That means the recognition given to Gebirah is not casual — it reflects global confidence that our cause, our vision, our willingness to serve the marginalised in Singapore and beyond, stands in the same league as ambitious humanitarian tech start-ups.

The initiative is not just a competition. It includes:

Expert mentorship
Red Cross and Red Crescent network access
A global human-centred innovation curriculum
Potential pilot funding of up to AUD 100,000

What stands out in their framework is one principle: Communities must be equal partners, not passive recipients. This is exactly how Gebirah has always served.

Why Gebirah’s work was recognised

Humanitech’s program focuses on solutions that meet real needs on the ground. For years, Gebirah has operated quietly but steadily in that exact space — supporting refugees, women, children, orphans, HIV-affected families, and communities living in poverty.

A few realities that many people don’t talk about often enough:

Over 70% of displaced people today live in countries neighbouring conflict zones — often without guaranteed access to healthcare, education, or lawful employment.
Climate-related disasters have increased fivefold since 1970, disproportionately affecting low-income communities.
In Southeast Asia alone, more than 30 million people live in informal settlements highly exposed to climate shocks, yet few have access to reliable early-warning or resilience systems.

The world is changing. According to the 2025 cohort announcement, climate-related disasters have increased fivefold globally since 1970. Humanitech | Australian Red Cross This means more communities — often the poorest and most marginalised — are facing extreme weather, displacement, loss of livelihoods, health crises, and social disruption.

Traditional humanitarian response — while essential — is no longer sufficient alone. That’s why initiatives like QBE AcceliCITY are crucial: they don’t just aim to react to disasters, but to prepare, to prevent, to build resilience. By embedding innovation with communities, they build capacity for long-term change.

These are the gaps the AcceliCITY program aims to address, and these are the same gaps Gebirah has been working on— from refugee support missions, to climate-impacted coastal communities, to vulnerable families without access to stable services.

Being selected as a semi-finalist signals that:

Our approach is relevant. Our mission is aligned with emerging humanitarian needs. And our commitment to dignity-centred support has global value.

What this opportunity means for Gebirah

For us, this selection is not an “achievement” — it’s an opportunity.

An opportunity to:

Strengthen how we deliver humanitarian aid
Integrate better community-led systems
Learn global best practices
Build climate-resilient and crisis-responsive models
Partner with governments, NGOs, and faith communities
Scale what we already do for refugees, orphans, people in poverty, and vulnerable women and children

Above all, it opens the door for us to bring more sustainable, evidence-backed solutions to the communities we serve.

A message to Christians and people of goodwill

Faith has always been the backbone of Gebirah’s work — not as a slogan, but as a responsibility.

Serving the poor, the forgotten, and the vulnerable is core to our understanding of Christian mission.

But meaningful humanitarian work has never been a one-person or one-organisation effort.

If you believe in justice, dignity, and practical compassion — your skills, time, or partnership can amplify the difference we make.

Whether you are:

A volunteer
A professional with relevant expertise
A potential collaborator
A donor
Or simply someone who cares about people on the margins

There is space for you in Gebirah’s journey.

We welcome partners, collaborators and volunteers who want to help us build and deliver these programmes to the communities who need them most.

Your skills, time, prayers, ideas, compassion can help transform this recognition into real hope — hope for the marginalised, for broken lives, for communities in need of healing.

If you feel inclined, pls like, share or comment and connect and follow me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-tan-c-g/

I love hearing your thoughts on #missions #humanitarian #refugees #poverty #orphans #HIV/Aids !