Refugee - Tumblr Posts
(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiMz-e2ZcE)
Jumping on the Rickman bandwagon to present a video that benefits refugee children. What could you lose?
this made me extremely emotional..
i don't remember some huge parts of my life, but i remember vividly, as if it's happened just now, the moment i woke up alone in my flat, opened the phone and read that we're being attacked. by bombs. i had about an hour to pack a suitcase (just now i realise how stupid of me was to think i'd had so much time). i was shocked but i remember being weirdly calm.. almost indifferent. i was just standing in the middle of my flat not fully processing what to do next, what to take with me, trying to understand if I'll ever come back (i never have and never will). i wasn't even scared. i was angry (that's probably also weird, l know). i lived on the edge of Kyiv then, right near the beginning of a highway, and as i stepped out of the building the first thing i saw were tanks. our tanks. they were heading out of the city in the direction towards russian border. and they gave absolutely zero shit about traffic rules smashing and going over the fenders, and driving on the wrong side of the road - that shocked me the most. that altered my brain chemistry: realisation that the urban rules by which you lived your whole life don't work anymore. so i took my suitcase and went alongside the road. soon my father picked me up and took us all outside of the city (sounds easy, but many people died that day trying to get out). i got lucky. stupidly. with no reason. i just got fucking lucky. not all of my friends did.
i moved to germany with my mother and younger brother and had been staying there for year and a half.. and then i was dead. it was the worst year and a half in my entire life (and I've had lots of bad years in my life). so i came back to Ukraine and I'm alive again. but I'm like a living dead. or at least i will have to carry that dead rotting piece of myself with me for the rest of my life (if i live long enough to have the rest of my life). the air alarms on new year's eve and two days before that barely went silent. even now, writing this i hear a siren. I'm not scared. I'm angry.
I'm trying to come up with the moral of the story but failing. you can do it yourself i guess.. idk. i could have been that dead woman, found on the road in Bucha with the "we are EU" key trinket squeezed between her painted fingermails, her body ripped and dirty and bloody, her suitcase next to her. or i could be that girl locked and burned in the car by russian soldier (idk if she had anything with her). or i could also be that daughter lying dead on a pavement beside her mother and father and younger brothen (covered with some cloth), their two suitcases still in their hands. i have no idea what was inside that suitcases. but i know that i was lucky to even become a refugee.
i gifted my partner "Trigger Warnings" book as a new year's present, which I'm now going to go and steal from her room to read myself. and on the first page i wrote for her "thank you for loving me when i still tasted of heartache and war".
“Two Minutes to Run”
Thank you. But (or maybe And). . . .
“What will you take you?” is a question people think they can answer, but can’t until it happens. It’s like being faced with the danger of death - some people freeze, some people run, some people laugh and charge. But you don’t know which you will do until faced with such danger. Same with the moment of fleeing. People don’t think, they react.
Some people react practically. They grab official identification and jackets and water.
Some people react sentimentally. They grab stuffed animals and photos and books.
Some people react frantically. They grab the coffee grinder and. . . .and. . . .time’s up. They have the coffee grinder.
I am a professor of archaeology who studies diaspora and immigration and identity through the things people keep and collect and move with them. I have found bodies of refugees who have died along the US border fleeing to a better life. Many of my fellow archaeologists have too. And our graduate students - one who did an exhibit on the objects found in temporary camps and on the bodies of the dead. So we know what people take, but we also know what people shed as they flee and it gets harder and harder and harder to stay alive. But you know what the bodies of those who didn’t make it almost always have on them? Identification. Sometimes in a pants pocket, sometimes sewn into a coat, sometimes grasped in their hands. A final plea. Do not forget who I am. Tell my family.
My point? I don’t know. You are one of my few remaining living heroes, your writings have been a companion to me since I stole my ex-boyfriend’s Sandmans from him in 1990 when in college. And I know I am not special in this (well, the stealing of Sandmans maybe). Your words have a power that mine do not. Whether fiction or non. So I guess I just wanted you to have more information so you can continue to make the world an even better place.
I guess that is my ask - continue to make the world a better place, which is response enough to my inquiry.
Thank you for writing this.
“My husband and I sold everything we had to afford the journey. We worked 15 hours a day in Turkey until we had enough money to leave. The smuggler put 152 of us on a boat. Once we saw the boat, many of us wanted to go back, but he told us that anyone who turned back would not get a refund. We had no choice. Both the lower compartment and the deck were filled with people. Waves began to come into the boat so the captain told everyone to throw their baggage into the sea. In the ocean we hit a rock, but the captain told us not to worry. Water began to come into the boat, but again he told us not to worry. We were in the lower compartment and it began to fill with water. It was too tight to move. Everyone began to scream. We were the last ones to get out alive. My husband pulled me out of the window. In the ocean, he took off his life jacket and gave it to a woman. We swam for as long as possible. After several hours he told me he that he was too tired to swim and that he was going to float on his back and rest. It was so dark we could not see. The waves were high. I could hear him calling me but he got further and further away. Eventually a boat found me. They never found my husband.” (Kos, Greece)
https://www.gofundme.com/f/ne9gzx-help-them-to-survive?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet-first-launch&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
Dear Friends,
I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to share an urgent plea for help. Due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, my family and I have been forced to flee our home and seek refuge in Khan Younis. My mother, who is pregnant, is in critical need of assistance to ensure her safety and the safety of her unborn child.
We are facing severe hardships and are struggling to provide her with the necessary medical care and basic necessities. I have launched a campaign to raise funds for my mother's survival during this perilous time.
Your support in sharing our campaign on social media could make a life-saving difference. Please help us spread the word and gather the support we desperately need.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Sincerely,
Please help us by sharing the post on your page so that we can collect donations and get out of the war. You are our hope. I will be very grateful to you . ❤️🙏🏼
"this fundraiser is vetted by nabulsi, fallahifag, el-shab-hussein, ibtisams, sayruq"
It's an actual gofundme, images look legit (don't come up in reverse image search, no obvious AI artifacts), other socials seem to match.
So it definitely looks like a real fundraiser. Seems to cover mainly Egypt entrance fees + extra costs. I can't donate but if you can, it makes a difference.
https://gofund.me/dc1e2f01
Dear Friends,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Issam Aziz, and I am reaching out in a moment of profound desperation. The relentless conflict in Gaza has brought my family to the brink. My mother is gravely ill, and our only hope is to evacuate her to a safer place where she can receive the medical care she so urgently needs.
I have launched a campaign to raise funds for my mother's evacuation and treatment. Her condition worsens with each passing day, and time is running out. The thought of losing her is unbearable, and I am pleading for your support.
Please, share our campaign on your social media platforms. Your kindness and generosity could be the miracle that saves my mother's life. Every share, every donation, brings us one step closer to safety and hope.
From the depths of my heart, I thank you for your support.
With gratitude,
Issam Aziz
"this fundraiser is vetted by nabulsi, fallahifag"🙏❤️
This does really seem legit and it's donation protected, meaning gofundme will refund you if it's found not to be within a year.
They're currently at 2504€ out of a goal of 7000€, of which $6000 (~5500€) is for crossing into Egypt.
Confirmed verified by nabulsi, but I can't find the fallahifag verification.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/ne9gzx-help-them-to-survive?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet-first-launch&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer
Dear Friends,
I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to share an urgent plea for help. Due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, my family and I have been forced to flee our home and seek refuge in Khan Younis. My mother, who is pregnant, is in critical need of assistance to ensure her safety and the safety of her unborn child.
We are facing severe hardships and are struggling to provide her with the necessary medical care and basic necessities. I have launched a campaign to raise funds for my mother's survival during this perilous time.
Your support in sharing our campaign on social media could make a life-saving difference. Please help us spread the word and gather the support we desperately need.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Sincerely,
Please help us by sharing the post on your page so that we can collect donations and get out of the war. You are our hope. I will be very grateful to you . ❤️🙏🏼
"this fundraiser is vetted by nabulsi, fallahifag, el-shab-hussein, ibtisams, sayruq"
This one I've already seen and it's legit.
It's currently at 11'346€ out of 45 k€, in almost two months so if you can donate, do so, and if you can't, reblog/repost/share.
Kids love watching planes fly by but in Gaza it's a different story. Our children are not simply enjoying the sight of aircrafts like other babies around the world. They are just happy because if the planes are not dropping bombs on them, it means there is a chance they are delivering even the slightest amount of food they need so much. As you can see here, Omar and Salah are waving dedperately for aid planes as they are heading to aid-drop food far and deep into sea. Salah is even telling the plane to come help him. The possibility of those food parcels reaching them is little to none, but still seeing planes drop aid instead of bombs makes them somewhat hopeful.
After being dispalced again from Rafah to khan Yunis, it has become nearly impossible for my family to provide water, food and other basic necessities for their children and newborns. It is even harder for them to access humanitarian aid now that the occupation has sealed the Rafah crossing with Egypt while Israeli settlers and soldiers continue to block aid trucks at Israel's Kerem Shalom border crossing. International organizations say it has become almost impossible to deliver aid in Gaza because of the presence if the Israeli military. Despite international appeals to reopen the borders and allow humanitarian aid in, Israel keeps depriving my family and countless others of desperately needed food, water and medicine while it constantly subjects them to the torture of displacement at the same time. Airstrikes and snipershots are not the only threat to my family right now. Starvation and disease are effectively used by the occupation to further deepen our suffering and threaten the very survival of our children and families.
Your support is now needed more than ever.
Please donate when possible and reblog as frequently as you can.
We are eternally grateful to each and everyone of you 🙏
https://gofund.me/538779bc
To make matters worse, they were displaced in the winter, living in a plastic tent that offers little protection from the cold, rain, extreme heat and onset of summer. They lack bathroom facilities and can only shower very rarely with a bucket due to the lack of water. Food, when available, is cooked over firewood, resulting in unhealthy and unpleasant-tasting meals. They never imagined a life like this. The war took away their comfortable home, leaving them to suffer on hard floors in the cold. My father’s back problems were exacerbated by sleeping on the floor, with no access to painkillers. Your donation and sharing their story will greatly help them meet their basic needs for food, medicine and necessities, as well as help cover their transportation costs. Thank you for your support and for listening to our story during this difficult time.
This tent is now sheltering us in difficult conditions after the bombing and burning of the house🇵🇸🍉🥺😢
Here our donation link 🔗 :
Occupation Symbols
Fireheart's a good teacher