Every day I am overwhelmed by the way almost everyone in the global north redefines health away from collective survival and toward promotion of individualism and eugenics.
People will talk about "hygiene" and they mean extensive skin care routines and cosmetics instead of preventing the spread of contagious diseases through requiring structural renovations for better ventilation of workplaces, schools, & public spaces and universal healthcare that includes easy, accessible, free testing & vaccinations.
People will talk about "nutrition" and they mean promoting expensive, restrictive diets dependent on imperial food systems and the promotion of anti-fat and anti-black policies, instead of doing anything to prevent the widespread nutrient deficiencies caused by our government's deliberate, ongoing starvation of Palestinian people.
Even NPR, a publication funded by the United States government, reported this morning that:
"One in three people are no longer eating for days at a time, warns the U.N.'s food program in Gaza. The United Nations says about 100,000 woman and children are severely malnourished in Gaza and need immediate medical care. The international organization Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, says 25% of the pregnant women and children ages six months to five years old whom it has been able to screen in Gaza are malnourished. Even if Gaza's severely malnourished children survive, Farrah from Nasser Hospital worries they will suffer from neurological impairments brought on by starvation. [...] after 21 months of shifting Israeli restrictions on how much and what kind of food can enter Gaza, he is seeing a shortage of significant nutritional elements in children's diets, such as iron, magnesium and calcium, because meat, vegetables and fruit are nearly impossible to obtain. The vitamin and mineral deficiencies "impact the development of a child's heart, liver and circulatory system," he says.
When you are thinking about health and nutrition, I want you to think about the people of Gaza.
When anyone starts a conversation with you about issues of health and nutrition, I want you to talk about the mass starvation of children in Palestine.
Do you have a responsibility to helping others survive? How do you care for the children in your life? The elderly? The disabled? Who is in your circle of care? How wide does it extend?
My friend Mahrah (@mahrahpalestine) and her brother Mahmoud (@palestinian95) Balousha are trying to keep their parents alive.
Their father lives with diabetes, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis. How can he maintain his health with no food and constant stress? Their mother has lost 27 kilos due to starvation.
The Balousha family fundraiser has been vetted by 90-ghost and shared by fairuzfan. The campaign is hosted by @omegaversereloaded, and funds donated are transferred directly from her to the Balousha family. Donating to their campaign is completely safe and urgently necessary.
Donating makes a direct and immediate impact on their family. Every single dollar or euro counts. It matters. Please donate.
