← Migrant Odyssey
Loading summary
Transcript68 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:09]
B
The problem that aid programs, donations, charities will always have is that we, the direct and indirect donors, are so easily distracted by events, political preferences and by a media bazaar that is constantly changing its showcase. Today's favorite causes, be they save the Children medicines, Sans Frontier Cancer research or aid to Myanmar, Ukraine, Sudan or Gaza, are all at various stages moved into the back of the store. And of course the further back they move, the lower the donations in Gaza. After the so called ceasefire happened in October 2025, Western media coverage dropped from multiple reports a day to a few a week. So little attention was paid to the fact that food and medical aid into the territory was very short of needs. And now, of course, with the Israeli US attack on Iran, Gaza has all but dropped right out of the headlines. Apart from a passing mention that the Israeli blockade is pretty much on. When coverage drops, so do donations. To be fair, it's not unique to Gaza or the Palestinians. I'm told, for example, that the UK's Disaster Emergency Committee raises most of its funds for appeals in their first six to eight weeks before plateauing. And even the really big guys have a problem. The 2025 UN flash appeal for Gaza has the occupied west bank secured committed funds of around 30% of its target by year end? Media coverage of Ukraine, by comparison, has remained a little more consistent, as particularly Europe beats the drum. And that shows in their fundraising. In 2025, the UN's flash appeal for Ukraine secured close to 50% of its target. And although I don't have any figures for the smaller appeals set up for Gaza and the West Bank, I would strongly suspect they'd be suffering even more, particularly as their infrastructures are not often securely funded. Not to labour the point, the traditional model of humanitarian fundraising is largely at the mercy of both media attention and let's not forget this political goodwill. The more hostile your national government and politicians are to the cause, the more reluctant you'll be to donate. And even if you do press on and donate, you probably will, like apparently 70% of Americans start to suffer from donor fatigue after the third or fourth request for help. Unless. Unless there is strong personal engagement and sympathy. Unless the focus moves from donation to relationships, from humanitarian to human. And that's what my guests today have very clearly understood and best of all, have done something about it. Gaza Champions. It's an international organization founded by two friends, Anam Rahim and Matt Davis, in the early days of the genocide. It links up volunteers, the champions, with Gazan families. And yes, those champions can just help raise funds for them but many share much more with their families. Much more than support. It's friendship, companionship, pen pals, zoom pals, if you like media coverage. Even political approval becomes almost irrelevant when you're caring for friends and family. And that's what Gaza Champions is all about. So, Anam Rahim and Matt Davis, welcome to Migrant Odyssey.
- [04:17]
A
Thank you for having us.
- [04:19]
C
Thank you. It's good to be here.
- [04:22]
D
Let's get some of the linear stuff
- [04:24]
B
out of the way, but very important stuff.
- [04:26]
D
How did Gaza Champions start and where is it now?
- [04:33]
C
So I think before we talk about Gaza Champions, we need to start with how Matt and I know each other, which is we've met several years ago in Gaza working for a community center called Gaza Sky Geeks, which is a tech hub, coding school, freelance academy and startup incubator that is was located in the heart of Gaza City. That's a program of Mercy Corps, which is a international humanitarian aid organization based in the US And Matt and I were two international employees at Gaza Sky Geeks and we co founded and co ran the Gaza Sky Geeks Code Academy, which was a six month program that took young aspiring software engineers, ran them through a boot camp and then at the end of that program we then linked our graduates to jobs in the international tech industry. So the idea was to create meaningful incomes for people in Gaza through the Internet as a way to access the global economy. So through that work I stayed for about five years. Matt was there for six years. Over that time we developed a big community of friends, co workers, people who felt like family to us, people we worked with and as well as our students. And so after we both left Gaza, there was a phase of the genocide where the Egyptian border had opened for people to evacuate. But there was an exorbitant fee attached to that. It was something like $5,000 per head and $2,500 per child to just get on the list to be able to leave Gaza and get to safety. So during that time it was clear that this war was not going anywhere anytime soon. And the brutality was just worsening. Many people from Gaza wanted that option to get to safety and get their families to safety. But of course money was a barrier, you know, especially for big families. For some of them it was tens of thousands of dollars, if not closer to $100,000 to be able to leave Gaza. So many people in Gaza started turning to crowdfunders like GoFundMe to be able to raise the money that they needed. And you know, as you know, Gaza has been under blockade for over a decade. So people's networks outside of Gaza are limited. And so because Matt and I had such a huge community in Gaza, so many people started to us to be like, I have this crowdfunding campaign, can you help me share it so I can, you know, raise the money needed to help me get my family out? And we started sharing it on our social media. It's not like we had very huge followings, but we were doing what we could. But it became really clear to me really quickly that this wasn't going to be a sustainable way to get the help, get the help to, to the people in the time that they needed it. And so I had a friend actually who here in D.C. who was following my sort of social media presence and she saw me posting people's fundraisers, telling the stories of my friends in Gaza and she just went out of her way to just connect with someone in Gaza whose story I was telling. And they formed their own sort of pen pal relationship where she said, hi, my name is so and so, I'm Anam's friend. I connect with your story because I also have a son your age, you know, and then they just started talking and then she on her own started to promote this fundraiser and started doing what she could to fundraise. And I was like, wow, this is, I wonder if I could scale this model, right, because this is now the one to one basis where someone can take the time to really develop an authentic relationship. So I remember sending Matt a voice note being like, I have this idea, what if, what if we did a call out for people around the world to be connected to our friends in Gaza on a one to one basis and we just empower them to go fundraise, do what they can. Like there's no obligation to raise any certain amount, but to just tell their story and do what they can. And Matt responded right away and he was like, yeah, let's do that. And we got going. We set up a spreadsheet, we put all of our friends crowdfunding links there and their names and their Instagram handles. And then I just used my Instagram profile to put out a call for applications from people who wanted to do this. Was completely unsure if anyone would want, would want to do this, but I'd say within our first week we received around 60 applications from people who are interested in becoming a pen pal with someone in Gaza and helping them with their fundraiser. So that's how I think that's the sort of the first, the first phase of Gaza Champions. Matt Is there anything you'd add from your. Your point of view of that time?
- [09:37]
A
No. No, I don't think so. Yeah, I think it was. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Trying to. Trying to kind of replicate something that happened naturally and kind of.
- [09:47]
D
Yeah.
- [09:48]
A
Encouraging that growth, really.
- [09:50]
D
And all great things start with a spreadsheet, don't they?
- [09:54]
C
Unfortunately, yeah.
- [09:56]
A
I mean, I'm not even sure we actually had a spreadsheet at first. It was just.
- [10:00]
B
Yeah.
- [10:01]
A
Then.
- [10:01]
D
Then what happened and. And you know, and bring us up to date sort of thing.
- [10:06]
A
So, yeah, I guess. I guess we kind of like started to make it more and more kind of. It feels like when we started it, I don't think we had any kind of thought of it becoming a big kind of. I mean, it's not. It's not a big organization now, but we are like an organization. We are like something now. We hadn't. I think initially we had probably just envisioned it as, we'll do this for, you know, a couple of weeks and connect people. But it just became very clear that actually we needed. That we needed to keep doing this. And we want. Not. We need it. We wanted to as well because it was like really clearly had having a big impact. So then we. Yeah, we made kind of an Instagram that we could use to like, kind of centralize our communication and stuff and then also kind of reshare things and become kind of a central hub of like what Gods Champions is like, really. Gus Champions is an Instagram page and a big WhatsApp group. So initially we had just been connecting, like the idea just being connect people directly with people in Gaza and kind of hope they do that. And then we also started putting people into the. Into a WhatsApp group. Like all the champions in the US or the UK, wherever they were, we put them in a group together so they could share experience. When we realized that that was. That was a community in itself, that was actually really powerful and really kind of beautiful in its own way. People could share knowledge and share kind of techniques, a for fundraising, but also for sending money, if they're sending money to Gaza or, you know, just kind of helping. We were helping each other get through kind of this grief of trying to kind of deal with like, what was going on. So we started kind of cultivating the community in that way as well, of making sure that all the champions were kind of doing a thing. And we had this. And I built out a website that was kind of a bit more public facing that anyone could see. So it wasn't just Me and Anam on Instagram kind of trying to get people and just bit by bit, I guess we just kind of kept adding, adding little things on and running events. Um, and then I guess, I guess maybe announce we could talk about like the Champion, the DC Champions, which is kind of probably our biggest kind of local group.
- [12:26]
D
I mean, I saw you on Instagram addressing one of the, one of the get togethers of the group in D.C. that seems that you've got, you, you've created a group that has a commonality as some sort of community around it. Is that, is that right in Washington?
- [12:46]
C
Yeah, definitely. So just. So around the world we have around 163 champions. In D.C. alone, we have 24. And so something that has been really beautiful to witness is the 24 champions in D.C. have come together and we have sort of formed a local mutual aid group where we do in person events, things like happy hours, we put on markets, comedy shows, bake sales, events for children. And we then use that to fundraise and get together and tell the story of the families that we're supporting, but also just humanize this. The idea of Gaza Champions of like, it's just regular people helping out regular people. There's like a really beautiful diversity in our group. We have some people who are parents, we have some people who are fresh grads, men, women, you know, it's just regular people, right? And it's not that you have to be Arab or you have to be Muslim or you have to even be consider yourself an activist. These are just people who were witnessing what was happening in Gaza, felt devastated by it, felt angry by it, and wanted to do something that was motivating. You know, I think of course there are protests in D.C. and those kind of opportunities, but I think in my opinion those kind of actions are sporadic and rely on a lot of emotional, like an emotional crest of rage to be like, something horrible happened in Gaza, let's get to the streets. But that's not something that can be sustained every day. And to be honest, it's not something that moves the needle in ways that are felt in Gaza, in the ways that are felt that are needed urgently in Gaza. And so I think where Gaza Champions has sort of carved a space in the movement is that it's something that's love motivated. And love, I don't think is something you can burn out on. Whereas rage and despair and frustration and all those things are, you know, suddenly for all of our champions. Palestine's not just a cause. Palestine is a person. Palestine's a friend. Palestine's a whole family that you're like. And every day you can wake up and say, what's one thing I can do for them? And sometimes that's telling their story, sometimes that's doing a big fundraiser. Sometimes it's something quiet, like just reaching out to that person and being like, how are you today? What's going on today? Happy birthday, by the way. You know, things like that and that. And something that we've learned a lot is that a lot of our friends in Gaza are saying, yes, of course, the material support has been so useful, but it's meant so much to me to have someone out there caring, wondering about me, knowing my name, like, just asking me how my day was, sharing in the little wins and little joys and successes, and also holding my grief with me. And so that's the commonality of this community, is that everyone, to be a champion, you just have to be holding a relationship with someone in Gaza in whatever form is most authentic to you. Some people have become very close friends. They FaceTime. Other people are kind of a bit more like, you know, just practical matters. I sent you the money. Did you get it?
- [16:09]
D
Great.
- [16:09]
C
You know, these sort of things. Yeah. And we have one champion in D.C. who was actually able to evacuate his family to Egypt. And then he flew to Egypt and met him. Met his pen pal. And they. Yeah, they met up in a cafe. And he still tells me about this pen pal who was a student of mine. And now this champion knows him better than me. He's like, oh, he got married, he has a child now. He's thriving, thank God. You know, it's so beautiful to see. And it's something where I'm like, these friendships are carrying on even past the objective of getting people to safety or getting people materially supported. A lot of these are turning into lifelong friendships. We have another champion in D.C. who, whose pen pal was evacuated by the Irish government to go to get his master's in Ireland. And as soon as that happened, she booked a flight to Ireland. And they were immediate friends. Immediate, like, you know, based off of months of being in touch. And so these are just two examples. But the. The actual authentic friendships that have come out of this is kind of beyond what I could have hoped for for this. You know, people will tell me, be like, I just found out me and my pen pal are both Scorpios. You know, like, that level of connection where I was like, cool, you know, that's.
- [17:30]
A
That's.
- [17:31]
C
It's teaching me something about Mutual aid as something that is not charity. It's not hierarchical. It's very person to person. And it, there's a democratization of how we support each other. And I think, yeah, Gaza Champions has, is embodying that in a way that's, it's, it's. I'm learning a lot from it, and I'm hoping to be able to sort of document these stories and archive them, because I think other movements can learn from this too.
- [18:02]
D
Yeah, I think, I think that's, that's absolutely correct. And, you know, the, the, the personal, the intimacy, if you like, of it, the humanity of it was, was what attracted my attention to, to, to you guys. Very much so. And as you were talking, I just, it just reminded me that the paradigm that you sort of shifted here is, is the, the transactional paradigm of charity, if you like, of charity or foreign aid or donation. You know, I, I give you receive.
- [18:35]
B
I give you receive.
- [18:36]
D
Whereas it's, it's, it's almost that the Islamic Karim, the generosity, the, the, the you give because it's not a transaction, it's a generosity.
- [18:49]
B
It's an openness.
- [18:50]
D
It's a, it's a humanity, I think is what, what you're saying here. It becomes an act of friendship, an act of love, rather than an act of guilt, obligation, blah, blah, blah.
- [19:07]
C
Yeah, it's. The mutual aid is. The operative word is mutual. It really does go both ways. Just a couple weeks ago, a champion who's based in Chicago, his grandmother passed away and he told his pen pal in Gaza that. And he said at the funeral home, me and my family received a bouquet. And when we saw who it was from, it was from my pen pal in Gaza. She had figured out where the service was going to be and knew how close he was to her, his grandmother. And she sent flowers and just condolences and love from Gaza and that. And he was like my family. And I just burst out into tears when we saw where it had come from. And I have lots of examples of that, of someone being like, you know, one champion going through a health crisis and her pen pal and Gaza said, I'm going to fast for you today and pray that you get some ease and some blessings as you move through this, this health scare. And she was like, I just, she's like, I've never felt, I felt. Never felt more supported, you know, by someone I've never met, let alone someone who's enduring genocide themselves.
- [20:20]
B
Yeah.
- [20:20]
D
So, yeah, I remember when I asked you both when we had the, the, the sort of briefing chat way back in 2025. And I said, I think I said to you Matt, you know, how do you, how do you check for fraud and things like that? And you said you would rather err on the side of trust. And I think that comes from, I didn't realize it at the time, but that comes from this, what you call mutual aid and I'm, and what we're calling this, this, you know, this pure generous friendship.
- [21:04]
A
Yeah. And I, I think the other, the other kind of aspect of the mutual aid and I think something that like, I think everyone has become like very acutely aware of in the past two years and especially in the past two months probably is kind of how kind of an understanding of kind of imperialism and anti imperialism like kind of has to be at the heart of all of our politics. I think if you're on the left or see yourself as progressive and I think there's something where, if you're, if you're in Palestine, especially if you're in Gaza, if you're in lots of the global south, you understand imperialism inherently, you're on the sharp end of it, you're feeling it every day. Whereas I think people in maybe the imperial core of center like us, we, we maybe have the politics of it where we're against it, but you don't necessarily understand it. You can read about it, you can kind of have an idea of, you know, this is imperialism, this is this bad thing. And I think there is something of where the mutual aid and where people are connecting and talking to people in Palestine where it, it gives people a much kind of sharper understanding of that in kind of a lot of ways and much more than you would get just from reading the news and news stories. You really understand how it affects someone's everyday day to day life. And this is kind of something I experienced living in Palestine is so many things which anyone in the west or you know would kind of throw their hands up and be, this is, you know, the worst thing in the world. In Palestine you just have to, you know, accept you're not okay, you're going to, you can't go home to your family because Israel have shut the roads and you can't, you can't go across and this. But you don't really hear about that. Even if you're following Palestine super closely, you might not know that. Whereas when you're connected directly one to one with someone, you kind of get this very clear day to day picture of it and you build kind of a new understanding of Politics and like how deeply kind of embedded this is. And I think it can kind of change how people relate to Palestine and how they understand kind of the world system. And yeah, raising money is like, this is absolutely urgent survival. But I also think long term, kind of having us all understand, like, yeah, we are, you know, we are kind of somehow all responsible for this and, you know, it's a much longer term thing of working out how we kind of put an end to it. But I think that is, that is another kind of mutual thing that I hope, I hope and I'm sure a lot of our champions do take.
- [23:46]
C
And I think these are, this is where the work of Gaza champions becomes super important, right? Is that we're not tied to the headlines, we're tied to a family in Gaza and you are tied to their updates, not what the media tells you. And so that's where, I think
- [24:05]
D
that's
- [24:05]
C
where I feel like this movement has a lot of potential to be a sort of longer term support for people in Gaza because, yeah, it's not going to be dependent on media cycles and it's not dependent on whether or not big aid can get in, whether or not donations are going to aid. So yeah,
- [24:30]
D
yeah, there's another conversation, isn't there, about how do you move it?
- [24:36]
B
When do you move it to being
- [24:40]
D
equally about friendship as about age? Because it was originally about age, wasn't it? About how do we get funds for these people? And that turned into friendship and that turned into the community, if you like. When do you move it to being about. Equally about emotional love, support, friendship support as well as, as well as money
- [25:09]
B
as well as aid.
- [25:11]
D
Matt, where's. Where, where do you find home? Where do I find. Where's home for you is Bristol.
- [25:20]
A
Bristol in the southwest of the uk.
- [25:22]
D
Is that, is that where you, is that where you exhale?
- [25:25]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's where. So it's, I mean, it's one of the more active most cities in the UK for kind of activists and people doing things. There's kind of, there's quite a lot of Palestine stuff happening within the city, I think. I don't know, I guess I'm here, so I, I know about it. But as it feels to me like outside of London, one of the more active places, like another movement I'm part of is Bristol, Apartheid Free zone and that's kind of, we're trying to build a community kind of against apartheid, against, like in solidarity with Palestine by going around door knocking and trying to organize a community, kind of boycott of Israeli goods. And it's as much about the boycott as it is about kind of going out and knocking on people's doors and talking to people about Palestine. I actually see. See it as very kind of, kind of in tandem or kind of complimentary to Gaza Champions, where it's much more local, it's much more kind of going out and talking to your neighbors. But it's. And it's really about trying to build this kind of mass movement politics, which is kind of the only way we can actually kind of fight for something that we all believe in, I think.
- [26:40]
D
But that's what. But that's where your. That's where your heart lies, as it were.
- [26:43]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [26:45]
D
And. And I'm. Where. Where does your heart lie? I'm not talking about your, you know, your, hey, I'm in Washington. But I'm talking about where do you go, Ah, thank God I'm home.
- [26:57]
C
It's a few places and I would say it's more. It depends more the company or the people I'm with. You know, when I'm organizing with Gaza Champions in dc, I feel like I'm at home. When I'm with my family in New Jersey, I feel like I'm at home. Every time I crossed the border into Gaza and arrived to Gaza Sky Geeks and saw a whole co working space full of familiar faces, I felt like I was at home. When I'm in my aunt's house in Lahore eating her food, I feel like I'm at home. There are lots of places around the world where I feel like I'm at home. And those are. I think those are the ones that come to mind.
- [27:39]
D
It's people, isn't it? It's people. Community. It's not. Not location. Yeah. So you. I read your short story, which I found exquisite. I found it beautifully written. Are you writing more?
- [27:57]
C
I am. I'm working on a memoir, actually, that when I left Gaza in 2021, I didn't immediately line up a job. I knew I wanted to take a bit of a sabbatical and be with my family and also just have a second to look back on what that half of a decade was. And I realized that I needed to write down what I had experienced because I knew it was something special and I knew it was. I got a glimpse, more than a glimpse. I got to live in a Gaza that very few people get to know about. And so I wanted to write about that. And so I started writing. I'd say I kind of officially started writing in the summer of 2023 and I wrote my first chapter of my. Of the memoir just based off of stories in Gaza, just experiences I had there. And then the genocide started and I put that project on pause. I was like, there are more urgent things to be done right now, AKA Gaza Champions. But also on another level, I think I knew that. Oh, the story I want to tell. I still have to live through it a bit more, that my experience in Gaza wasn't just it, it's now witnessing its destruction, witnessing. Witnessing genocide of the people who. Of the place I was trying to archive, watching it get deleted before my eyes. So I put that aside. But my writing, I still wrote. I wrote, I have a substack and I wrote almost on a monthly basis over the past two years. Just reflections about what it's like to be one degree of separation from genocide, to be sitting in the belly of the beast of the imperial core while doing it, and also trying what it's like to be an organizer in this time. So there were so many times where I was saying, oh, I'm not writing my book, I'm not writing my book. But a lot of friends would be like, I think you are. I think you're writing it. It's just not in the format you thought it would come out in.
- [30:10]
D
So you're just not transcribing it is what you're.
- [30:12]
C
I'm just not transcribing it. Yeah. And I had this beautiful opportunity to go to an artist residency at the end of last year in Florida. And that's when I kind of first opened up my files and got back into the book writing. And it was there, it was, there was something in me being like, the story's ready and taking the pressure off of being like, this isn't going to be the only thing I write about Palestine. So knowing that the story is not over, my story is not over, Palestine's story is not over. My relationship with Palestine will always be an evolving thing, but I have carved out this sort of world of what it was like, who went to Palestine, who came out and then who is the person who could withstand what we had to withstand and come out clearer in my worldview, clearer in my courage and clearer in what's important in this life. So my goal for this year is to have a full manuscript of this book. And yeah, the more every day that passes, I feel like the pieces of the puzzle click. More I have a wall of post its of different chapters and it's just like it's coming out of me so stay tuned.
- [31:40]
D
We will be tuned. So you better write that book.
- [31:44]
B
Yeah,
- [31:46]
D
I want to talk just, just, just to end off about happiness, where it comes from. This thought was both from your short story and what you said in that get together on, on, on Instagram, which, which, which I saw.
- [32:05]
B
And
- [32:07]
D
in your, in your short story, your, Your main character sort of goes down to the, the, the, the coast, the beach and, and says, and looks, Feels the happiness, but actually sees those. The Israeli warships off the coast of Gaza. And she says the scene resembled a state of joy in Gaza. It exists and is plentiful and when it shines, it's almost blinding. But that joy is contained by forces with a mandate to restrict. And then you said something else. Then you said something on that Instagram which is. You quoted one of my favorite surahs where Inamma al usri yusra, which you translate as. And it's pretty close to how I feel about it. With hardship there is ease. With every hardship there will be relief. And I say hardship melts into ease. And both of them talk about the finite, but not the finiteness of happiness and of hardship. Because I think this restricted happiness, this happiness with a lurking worship, this happiness with a lurking threat is becoming more
- [33:29]
A
and more
- [33:31]
D
something that people feel more and more. We're going to ask Matt this first and then I'll ask, did you see that? Do you see that now in Britain? Do you? What has happened to your quality of happiness?
- [33:55]
A
Wow. I guess it touches on a lot of things for me. Like as, as you were asking the question, I was thinking how. I don't really know, to be honest. I think I don't know how I feel like what kind of shape or form my happiness takes. I think that's something I've definitely struggled with a lot in the past year, two years since the genocide. So I left Palestine on the 30th of September, 2023. And then a week later it was at. I was at a friend's wedding, a very old friend's wedding, on the 7th of October. And so I was kind of still, you know, my, my heart was and still is in, in Palestine and kind of. I feel like that's changed me fundamentally, the genocide. And I think as it should have done, as it should change all of us, I think, and I think there's. To be honest, I would say since then, I'm not sure how I definitely, I have obviously been happy and felt joy, but I think I found it very hard to not kind of, there's. There's Always a weight, always a weight there. But I guess conversely, and this is probably what you're getting at, there are times and kind of like what Anam said, the times now when I feel the most happy or the most joy is. Is doing organizing work like Daza champions. And that sounds kind of a bit glib and like, oh, but I think it's being around other people who feel, who are feeling the pain as deeply as I'm feeling. And we're working together to try and. To try and fight it, basically. Not to try and fix it as like, this isn't necessarily something you can fix, but trying to fight it and trying to build something based around love. And as Anam said, and kind of that is the. The truest friends I've made in the past two years. Since I've moved out, I'd lived abroad for five years. I have had old friends, but I kind of start a new life really and was making. Making new friends. And the truest friends I've made in that time are those who. I feel absolutely like we are all, we all kind of have a belief and understand exactly what the world is right now. And we all are united. And that's kind of where I find. Find love, I think, and happiness. I don't know if that quite answers your question. No things.
- [36:40]
D
It's a lovely answer and, and you know, it is an answer to my question. Absolutely. Anna,
- [36:49]
C
I'm going to answer your question with a story from Gaza. Matt and I have a very close mutual friend in Gaza. His name is Mahmoud and he is so deeply rooted in the community. And while fending for his own survival and his family's survival, he has been running community impact projects throughout the genocide. Things like supplying bakeries with firewood to keep going so that they can keep making bread for people, especially during, you know, the famine. He's been making food parcels and doing distributions, things like that. And one day he texted me because he had witnessed something unbearable. He watched. He watched a whole residential tower fall before his eyes. He saw the. The missile strike the building and he was just like, I know so many people. And I watched it, I saw it in my eyes. And I responded to him. Do you ever see signs of Allah? And he said, you know, for the past, however long, over a year, I've gone to bed completely exhausted, completely drained. Emotionally, mentally, physically, he's like, I haven't had meat in months and months and months. I haven't had a proper meal, I haven't had proper sleep. This isn't getting Any better. I'm watching my homeland get brutally destroyed before my eyes. He's like, but then somehow, more often than not, I wake up full of energy and full of this feeling of, oh, there's something I can do for people that will bring ease to their life. And he's like, and for me, he said, I wake up like the way a bird wakes up, knowing that they have to go and get food and bring it to their. To their little birdlings. And he's like, for me, that's enough of a sign. And I think about that a lot. I think about, where does that energy come? Especially when you look at the cold reality of the world. We're in the Dark Ages, we're in the fall of an empire, and all empires go out with a bloody tantrum. But there is something about having that energy to see the light and to find the. The people who are seeing the light with you and. And, yeah, binding together. And I think it's more than happiness. I think that's. There's a joy in that. There's. There's like an energy in that that I wake up in the morning and I think about, what can we do today? And that's a really. That makes me happy to think about that question and to answer that question and to do it with people I like, people who are my friends. So I think that's where I'm finding joy, is that I'm not stumped. I'm not. I'm horrified. I am in a lot of grief, but I haven't run out of ideas of things to do that will make a difference. And I think that that keeps me happy.
- [40:10]
D
Hardship melts into ease. Both of you, thank you so much. That was a very rich. Yeah, very rich, very moving conversation and it didn't go linear, so it worked. I'm delighted. Thank you very much.
- [40:32]
B
My guests today were Anambrahim and Matt Davis, co founders of Gaza Champions. I put quite a few things in the show notes today. The links to Gaza Champions, of course, as well as to Annam's substack, where you'll find her rather fine writing. And that short story I was talking about, there's a link to that as well. Also, Mahmoud, who Anam mentioned, has now become a father for the first time. Congratulations to him and his family and continues his great work on the ground in Gaza. Gaza Champions is hosting a fundraising page for him, and that's in the show notes as well.
- [41:15]
D
Okay.
- [41:17]
B
Thank you for being with me today. I hope you found it a little uplifting. In these stormy times.
- [41:23]
D
And of course, as always, if you
- [41:25]
B
feel like it, drop me a line. Until the next time, I'm Stephen Barden. This has been another episode of Migrant Odyssey.