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Help us reach new supporters by sharing our campaign with your network!
Download the formatted email here then simply copy and paste the separate elements (logo, text body, & photo block) into a newly composed email addressed to your contacts!
Subject Line example: “Send Direct Aid to Gaza <3”.
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*Make sure to add links to our GoFundme and Hussein’s instagram where highlighted. Both provided on this page :)
ABOUT MLMA
Many Lands Mutual Aid is the newest chapter of our ongoing aid distribution project in Gaza spearheaded by our friend Hussein Alzaq!
Since the previous campaign was such a huge success, and sadly the need in Gaza won’t be waning any time soon, we decided it was time to regroup and start fresh in order keep the operation sustainable for all involved.
We’re in this for the long haul…
Like Hussein says to his community…
~ لن نترككم وحدكم ~ ‘We will not leave you alone’.
About our team:
We are 2 activists based in NYC and NC who’ve been working with Hussein for the past year - raising and transferring funds from generous organizers/individuals all over the world straight to Gaza for him to redistribute.
He and his family of 18 have been sheltering in an UNRWA school in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza since their home and farmland were destroyed.
This was the 4th time that their family business - a chain of poultry farms in the Al Shujaiya neighborhood, was intentionally destroyed by the occupation.
No strangers to mutual aid work, the Alzaqs used their farms to help support their community for over a decade- building wells for public use on their land, providing jobs, and giving away crops, eggs, and meat to their less fortunate neighbors. Despite their immense struggles, continuously losing everything and rebuilding, even now -in the worst situation imaginable- they’ve remained dedicated to helping others <3
On top of supporting his entire family, Hussein has worked non-stop to source and consistently distribute aid to as many other displaced people as possible. He works as a team with his younger brother Ismail, older brother Samer, and nephews. Together they make cash runs, travel to the market to coordinate with local vendors, and organize/strategize what’s most needed at certain times. While they’re handling all of the aid work, Hussein’s amazing wife Samah and mother Najah take care of all of the children and injured or elderly members of the family at the school.
Why Mutual Aid?:
UNRWA has hardly provided any food or water to the more than 12,000 people stuck living on the school grounds since the start of the “war”. And because of the occupation’s blockades and intentional targeting of aid convoy routes, the larger NGOs are heavily restricted in who they can reach. Direct transfers to mutual aid workers with working bank accounts has been one of the best ways for the outside world to lend our support to the besieged people of Gaza and keep countless people from starving to death.
Everyone there is just trying to survive day to day right now and survival alone is a vital act of resistance for the Palestinian people.
One of the most beautiful things about mutual aid work is that it can evolve and change as the needs of the community do!
Many of the families relying on Hussein’s help worked on or lived near the Alzaq’s farms. During the previous campaign (which covered the first 6 months of everyone’s displacement) he was focused on helping these people, who they initially fled Al- Shujaiya with, get settled wherever they could- splitting his relief efforts between Deir Al-Balah and Rafah. As it became more difficult for Hussein and Ismail to make the dangerous journey to distribute aid to them in the south, they decided it was crucial to help these families start their own fundraising campaigns to become self-sufficient or relocate them to the area of their school. Now that they’ve accomplished this, they can maximize the impact of our donations by focusing their efforts completely in the Deir Al-Balah camp, allowing us to help tons of new families!
How your donations are used:
Reach definitely fluctuates depending on the amount of funding that comes in, but Hussein manages everything responsibly to maintain a consistent pace of distribution. We typically support between 30 and 60 families weekly.
There are still functioning markets in Deir Al-Balah and now vendors set up near the school selling various goods, food, and clean drinking water. Since every family has different urgent needs, regular cash distribution remains our prioritized form of weekly distribution. But thanks to the massive success of this project we are now able to provide:
Weekly Cash Distribution
A Weekly Free Baking Day
Regular Grocery Distribution
Regular Fresh Meat Distribution
Regular Baby Formula Deliveries
Hygienic Products
Tents for Newly Displaced Families
School Supplies & Lunches
& Community events to help boost spirits! When they can the team plans large-scale charity and entertainment events at the school. They’ve contracted other displaced people to bake treats on special days, organized cleaning teams for the public restrooms to help disease from spreading, and even hired barbers to give haircuts to over 200 boys at the school.
These additional projects have also established a really awesome way to provide some small source of income for just a few of the thousands of people who’ve had none for over a year now.
The support we all provide isn’t just life-sustaining, but hope-sustaining when it’s needed more than ever.
Our efforts and connection are a daily reminder that the world hasn’t forgotten about them and that we won’t stop fighting until they and everyone in Palestine are free and safe.
