400+ people were killed in gaza last night.
my friend tarek has been doing some amazing community organizing in palestine — he’s been teaching classes for children with my other friend farah AND distributing water and providing iftar meals during ramadan throughout rafah! his brother just had a major orthopedic surgery he had to wait about a year for and since food and water is incredibly scarce he can’t properly recover. please donate to their efforts!!!
quick reminder: tarek isn’t just a word on your screen, he is my friend.
he’s 21, the same age as me. before the war he was studying to be a translator and he dreamt of voice acting, just like so many of you reading this. (he’s pretty good too actually.) he would probably not call himself a poet but every few days he posts something so beautifully worded that he might as well be a poet laureate. he recently wrote: “gaza is sick of being praised by anyone. gaza is tired that its image is on satellite tv. gaza is sick of its name in the sad poems. gaza is tired of the repeated endings.” the message is clear — sentiments are not enough, his people need HELP.
every day i tell him im doing everything i can. and it’s true, i am, but its barely anything, as i’m disabled and bedridden. i’ve kept that fact from him out of shame because i see what he has to endure each day, but i feel SO POWERLESS. every time an announcement breaks that more bombs have dropped in the night or more innocent people were gunned down in broad daylight, my heart sinks with terror and i wonder if i’ve lost my friend. it really would mean so much — not just to him, to me — if you could donate anything you can spare to tarek and his family. he deserves the whole world and more.
