Chutton the MrenBiolijust

Zevran from mine and my bestie's au

Links to free binders:

hello! uploading a new commision sheet with lowered prices due to my current situation and plans for the near future as year 2 of college rapidly approaches. thank you for reading! feel free to ask more questions here in dms or on twitter (@/al_astairs). have a good day!

Marcelat Sakobi of Democratic Republic of Congo, at the end of the women’s round of 32 boxing match against Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova, made a strong gesture to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide in the DR Congo by placing her hand in front of her mouth and pointing two fingers at her temple.

Resources for Congo:

Friends of Congo

Panzi Foundation

War Child

CammeDRCongo

Genocide Watch

A guide to the decades-long conflict in DR Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Industrial mining of cobalt and copper for rechargeable batteries is leading to grievous human rights abuses.

An explanation thread from 2019.

Books on Congo.

Amjambo Africa - Completely FREE nonprofit newspaper that you can get at grocery stores in cities around Maine with large African populations. It offers news in French and is critical for disseminating information about immigration law and policy changes in a way that's actually accessible. They take donations, because again, they don't sell the paper, they give it out for free.

If there are a lot of Congolese asylum seekers in your community, consider learning French! Typically asylum seekers who come in the land route from Brazil to Texas speak very, very minimal English because of the urgent nature of their evacuation. If you live in a community with a lot of Congolese people, you will start to notice people struggling to convey their needs at places like the DMV, town hall, and post office. One real concrete way you can help immigrants from Congo and the RDC right now is to learn enough French to help interpret.

It seems like it's a steep learning curve, but for someone who is already fluent in English, French isn't that hard. I taught myself French independently while working in the govt and got hours of daily practice with people from Congo and the RDC and that was enough to make me able to serve clients in French and to this day I can step in at places like the post office.

Learn to pronounce French names. Learn how to pronounce names in Lingala, which has the most straightforward and unambiguous pronunciation system of any language I've ever seen. Learn how to pronounce phonemes like mb-, nk-, nd-, etc. Imagine how dehumanizing it would be to have your name mispronounced everywhere you go - your name, a core piece of how you conceptualize yourself. Imagine how it would feel to finally be addressed correctly.

Help a Palestinian family directly:

gazafunds.com - Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical attention, food, rebuilding homes/businesses etc. (Spotlights 1 verified gfm at a time so if you don't know who/where to donate to just go here and donate to the one they show you!)

Help provide tents (urgent):

The Sameer Project: Currently providing tents for displaced families in Gaza (emergency bc tents in Rafah are being burned as we speak) (paypal) (gfm)

Food, cash & essentials:

Care for Gaza: Working on the ground in Gaza to distribute food, cash, medicine & other essentials to displaced families. (paypal) (gfm)

Direct Aid for Gaza: also working on the ground in Gaza to distribute food, cash & other daily essential suppliess to displaced families. (paypal) (gfm)

Water:

Gaza Municipality's water project: The official Municipality of Gaza needs help rebuilding the water infrastructure in Gaza City to restore access to clean water and waste management services for the people of Gaza. (This campaign only has a couple of weeks left but it's still only at 15%!)

eSIMs (urgent):

guide to buy & send esims for gaza

crips for esims for gaza: If you don't know how to buy esims or don't have the capacity to manage them (e.g. topping up regularly), this team of volunteers are collecting funds to buy & manage gaza esims regularly

Medical Aid