(　･ω･)

He holds his small child with trembling hands, as if all the warmth left in the world is hidden in his chest, while the wind tears through what remains of hope. His family sits around him, pale faces and eyes asking a single question: How will we survive tonight?

This father was once a simple worker, returning at the end of the day carrying his exhaustion and a meal that was enough for them. Today, he has no job left, no door to knock on, no opportunity to provide for his family. The Israeli war stole his livelihood, broke his back, and left his children sleeping in the winter cold—without blankets, without walls to protect them, and without the promise of a warmer morning.😭

His child asks for very little: a warm bottle of milk, and a hand to wipe away his tears when the sound of the wind startles him like another airstrike. The mother tries to hide her fear, gathering scraps of fabric to create temporary warmth, forcing a fragile smile so the children won’t see her brokenness. As for the father, he sits in silence, counting their breaths, feeling helplessness gnaw at his heart more painfully than the cold itself.

Here in Gaza, catastrophe cannot be measured in words. It is long nights without electricity, empty stomachs, destroyed homes, and dreams postponed to an unknown future. Yet this father clings to a thin thread of patience, because surrender would mean failing his family. He lifts his head to the sky and whispers a simple prayer: that this winter will pass, and that his children will stay alive… for that is all he has left now.

From here, we extend our hands to you.

This family urgently needs €700 to buy blankets that will protect the children from the freezing cold and to repair the destroyed walls with tarps, 💔😭

so that rain and wind no longer invade their fragile shelter. They are not asking for the impossible—only for their basic right to warmth and life. Your support, no matter how small, could be a blanket that shields a child from a harsh night, a wall that offers a moment of safety, or a spark of hope that restores a piece of this father’s shattered dignity.

Your donation is not just money—it is a humane message telling them they are not alone, and that there are still hearts that feel Gaza’s pain and believe in the right of its families to survive.

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #722 )✅️

Utermohlen was an artist who suffered through Alzheimer's at the end of his life, and you can see his skills and sense of self slipping as the disease progressed.

The last of his self portraits is haunting: it's little more than a couple piercing black ovals for eyes on a ghastly, wispy pencil-sketched approximation of a face.

Tachy's story always grips me because of her internal wrestling with who she is without racing. She's from a whole clas/race/third gender of people imbued with the name, personality quirks, and similar fates as creatures from another plain, and everything in their being makes them want to run and compete. Having that stripped away because your body just can't do it is harrowing.

Today (January 20th) is Penguin Awareness Day.

Please be aware of these penguins.

Thank you for your cooperation.