#chuffed

mutual aid means no hierarchy between givers and receivers

a new mutual aid org, Bridge of Solidarity, has been established in the gaza strip by 17 year old poet yazan mohammed in response to the exploitative practices conducted by some charities and encouraged by the existing charity-based model of fundraising for gaza. according to BoS: "the western attention economy and pity economy plays a large role in who lives or dies in gaza." essentially, people need to make themselves marketable in order to receive lifesaving aid; people who are not marketable die. yazan himself wrote about the damage this can do to one's self image, which you can read here.

after trying for a year to respect his own privacy, my friend siraj was also pressured into posting images of his son's emaciated body in order to gain sympathy from westerners.

we cannot keep forcing people to do this anymore.

here's a declaration of their values from bridge of solidarity's most recent post:

Our organization is against the Western gaze. We refuse to humiliate people. We refuse to force people to take photos. We refuse to force people to take photos with our flyer or logo. People will receive aid freely without being forced to pose. We will respect people's privacy completely. Our principles include autonomy, dignity, sovereignty, mutual respect, and mutual aid.

this org will prioritize giving aid to people without phones or social media, who do not speak english, and who do not have outside support or living parents. these are the people who are not palatable to westerners but who deserve to live with as much dignity as everyone else

as of five days ago, BoS are working on a water truck delivery

If you had to navigate the internet in a language you didn't understand and couldn't even read, how would you go about it?

My friend Wesal (@deemagaza) doesn't speak English. The only way she can find her way around the English internet is by using Google Translate or ask others like me for help. It is very difficult for her.

Yet she has no choice but to do so for her daughter Farah, almost sixteen now, who is autistic and has a kidney problem that - without treatment - makes her deficient in potassium, which, if it becomes too severe, can lead to cardiac arrest.

^ Farah spends most of her days like this now, feeling uncomfortable in her body, but not understanding why.

Farah's medication has become unavailable in Gaza, which has endangered her life and means she has to be treated in the hospital, which is costly and where they are running out of resources as well. Farah's case has now been referred to the WHO to be transferred abroad. If the opportunity for evacuation arises, we must make sure the funds are available!

Please help by donating to Farah's fundraiser and by sharing this post! Farah's fundraiser has been verified by gazavetters, #451!

If anyone has wants to donate but has questions about how the funds are transferred to Farah's family, feel free to get in touch!

If you donate to Farah's campaign, you can get a free commission by @fablebagel! Thank you, Fable! ❤️

tagging for reach, please share and aks your friends to share as well, thank you <3 (let me know if you don't want me to tag you anymore, apologies for any multiple tags)

Hello, I'm Ghada Mhasen, 20 years old, mother of a child born in war. She married shortly before the war and became pregnant a month before the war. The war came and killed my joy with my pregnancy and marriage, as we were forced to leave our house and flee. I left my belongings and things behind. I couldn't take anything. It was a difficult period with great difficulty. We found a tent to shelter my husband and me, because we had nothing. No one helped us. We tried to manage our affairs with the simplest and least things, but we also had to flee again, as we fled to Rafah. I heard the news of my house bombing and it was shocking news for me because it was all we had. My condition deteriorated and I was afraid for my unborn baby. Time passed and we tried to manage our affairs, but we almost died of hunger and almost lost my child, but thank God he remained fine. We continued to be displaced and our condition worsened. My husband and I were very tired until we visited Khan Yunis for the last time. It's time for me to have children and be born in a tent, a contaminated tent. There was no medical supplies. My condition was critical, but thanks to God, my child and I survived. Now I can't provide for his basic needs. We put below zero. I have now resorted to creating a Chuffed account to ask for help from you. Please help me, please. We need a tent to accommodate us from the winter and the needs of my child. We need food and drink. We need medicine. My husband worked hard to provide the simplest things for us, but while he was working, a wall fell on him and broke his foot. Now there's no way to help us live except for this donation link. Please save us. Please, every donation is important. It would have saved us from war, hunger and cold. We are not in one war. We are in three wars: the war of Zionism, the war of hunger and the war of cold. I ask you to save us. Every donation, up to $20, will save us from these wars. I am now living in a cloth that covers four sides without a roof. If winter really comes, we will die. Save us. Thank God, now after the end of the war, we are still living a very difficult life. I still can't provide for my child's needs or provide any of our needs from eating and drinking, even water with difficulty, we bring it. We always wait for any help to come to us, but unfortunately, my child does not come, he is exposed to a lot of infections because of the bad Pampers that we use for. I just want to provide what is necessary. I want to ensure a good life for him most of the time. It's rainy, uninhabitable tent. We always sink. I hope you to help us if in $50, please sympathize with us and my child. I trust you and thank you.

Hello! I was asked by @transjohnnnny to set up a fundraiser to help them raise money to improve the conditions they're currently facing. John and Ciara live with 38 other LBGTQIA refugees and have been facing discrimination, threats of transphobic and homophobic violence; along with worsening conditions thanks to a lack of shelter, clean water and food. Please donate what you can and if you're not able too reblog! They desperately need the help, any money given to this campaign will be used to buy food, tents and other supplies. Again if you're not able to donate please reblog and share!

their families are fundraising together for survival. they recently regained internet access after 50 days, in which they suffered extreme hardship. they were trapped by the occupation, unable to flee, and amal's husband moatasem was injured and unable to receive care for 10 days until the ceasefire was announced. they moved south for his care, as well as for amal's care, as she is nearing the end of a pregnancy made incredibly difficult by the genocide. you can watch amal and sahar shehab tell their full story in this video.

they have a joint chuffed campaign to support their families and gain necessary funds to provide moatasem and amal with the care they need to heal and remain healthy, as well as for the survival of the rest of the family. a ceasefire may have been signed, but the suffering in gaza hasn't ended. any amount you can spare, and effort in sharing and promoting makes a difference. their verifications are listed in this post here. please, make a difference in the lives of these beautiful families - if your places were switched, they would do the same for you.

hello! I'm here today to ask for your help for my friend's family in Gaza.

you can find Omar's campaign here at this link:

you can find Omar's blog here: @omar-hammad04

Current progress: $200/$40,000

Ahmed's father is in dire need of surgery. He is battling cancer and liver disease and needs to undergo surgery for his enlarged liver. He's staying in the intensive care unit at the hospital, but his family does not have the funds needed to afford the operations he needs.

Ahmed's father has been Ahmed's only support system since the death of his mother just a little over a month ago. His father is all he has left and Ahmed is scared he will die without this surgery and leave him alone.

Please donate if you can and share to help Ahmed take care of his father.

Vetting information: Ahmed is not yet verified, but he is vetted by association with Hana (@/hanayousef00). They are friends and their campaigns are managed by the same person, Darius Rudominer. Hana's campagin is vetted #246 on this list. Darius is working on getting Ahmed's campaign vetted.

Now that I have your attention, @danashehab and her family still need help, especially with the floods and harsh weather in Gaza. The fundraiser is here along with vetting information here