I've wanted to draw something that was positively impactful for a really long time. More than just something symbolic or representing/ speaking out about personal trauma.
And then I saw these photos of the Gaza Strip after Israeli airstrikes. I saw this one specifically. It was what seems to be this mother holding a boy, it appears to be maybe his grandparents hovering over her. Older woman looks to be calling out for somebody to help. The grandfather just looked absolutely stricken by shock and grief, this little boy was always supposed to outlive him. And the mother, I could barely stand to look at her. Not out of to disgust but out of a shared knowledge of heartwrenching grief. She looked numb. You can lose a lot and survive it but your child? I can't imagine that. I didn't want to imagine that. In her face I saw a woman who may have just lost every reason she ever had to go on.
When I've lost in my life. And trust me I've lost. Most nights of my life, I had a warm bed to sleep in. Most days of my life were air conditioned. Most days of my life when I lost something, I still had so much at the end of the day. This woman may lay her head down on whatever she has to use as a bed in whatever she uses as shelter, and she may have been awoken by the same exact noises that killed her little boy.
I had to study their faces to draw them just right. I cried more than once. But every time I would come back to it I would look for the names, I would search for the photo again and look for their names but I couldn't find them. Despite my best efforts, I can't find that boy's name. And I can't finish the drawing because of that. It makes me so sad.
I don't know their names. This little boy's life was ended. And I can't find his name.
I'm sure if an American child passed away in an incident like this, we would know their name, we would know the mother's name, the grandparents names. We would know their stories. But this is in Palestine. This is in the Gaza Strip. So we don't know their names. They have been reduced to statistics and numbers, not human beings, not real children.
I want to make an impact, I don't know if drawing a scene like this is how? I know it's impacted me. I know the sadness that I feel for these people in this photo is like I know them, I feel that pit in my stomach when I'm looking at it. Like a family member has passed.
The goal isn't to shock with gore so I'm choosing not to share the original image as there are visible injuries. But this little boy and his family deserve the same visibility as any other suffering family.
This little boy deserved to live his life, and he deserves to have his name and story live on. I wish I could draw a photo of them from before the airstrike, a moment of peace, maybe one with a smile. I wish I knew their names and I wish I could share it with the world.
I'm a 25-year-old stay-at-home mom living on disability, I live a pretty comfortable life compared to these people, but I don't have money to spare for donations most months. And the people who work for the places that go all over the world doing humanitarian words don't really hire people like me. Because who wants to hire somebody who's unstable, especially emotionally and especially when it affects what I can do physically. It's totally understandable.
This is probably literally the least I can do, and the least you can do is make something yourself, a simple post even, voice to text it if you feel like it? Just let people know, some people have no idea what's really going on. Some people don't understand how horrific it is. Some people don't understand that these are real people. And there's a lot that just need to learn.
The least you can do is to also spread awareness. I'm not saying share my post. I'm saying make your own and share stories until you can find names. Teach others with empathy for their ignorance. Keep the children, like this little boy, alive, through their stories.
