Last Friday New Zealand was stunned and rocked to the core by the horrific attack on two mosques in Christchurch taking the lives of 50 people as they peacefully prayed during their traditional Friday prayer service.
I , like many kiwis were shaken to the core by these events. But it became very real when the names and faces of those victims were released over the weekend and discovered that one of those people was someone that I had had previously met.
Atta Elayyan, known in the CSNZ Community as “Crazyarab” was an active member of the NZ CS:Go Community, however will be better remembered for his work as a tech founder, app developer and member of the NZ Futsal team.
I was not a close friend of Atta, however I had the pleasure of meeting him a few years back during our coverage of Microsoft Ignite.
My interactions with Atta at this even and future events were always full of joy.
Atta Elayyan, LWA Solutions – MS Ignite NZ
Posted by Hashtag ME on Monday, 24 October 2016
Nigel Parker from Microsoft sums him up perfectly in him memorial post on Medium:
“Atta Elayyan to me was one of those people that you are lucky to meet in your lifetime. He was a genuine leader, talented designer and inspiring entrepreneur.”
goto.game would like to extend our Aroha to families and friends of Atta and the other victims of Fridays events.
We will be supporting the Aroha for NZ live stream to raise money for the victims and show love to the people of New Zealand.
More news will be available here soon: www.arohafornz.org
And you can donate now here:
https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/aroha-for-nz