Can you Dream Big while your life is at stake? While you are physically, mentally and emotionally broken? While your only priority is to fight and make it another day; alive? Of course you CAN NOT. How can you? Dreaming big becomes a luxury if your whole life is about survival. And how do you even survive if you are stuck at a border, in detention centers, oceans and continents away from the life you knew and flee away from, because death was coming for you in all shapes and form?
You don't escape a place, jump on a boat and leave everything that is familiar to you, to jump in a shark's mouth. You flee to be able to live, to unleash your dreams, unchain yourself, and to harness your butterflies. How could you thrive, while you are out in this cold world alone, unsure of life, hungry and sick? As much as the human spirit is strong, it can only take so much before it breaks, the flesh deteriorates and the heart stops beating- until someone like Rebecca shows up willing to maintain what’s left in you and give you hope. Then, Maybe- just maybe- you might fight to last another second, perhaps another day, hoping better days will come and that some one actually cares about you.
Rebecca Alemayehu (@rebecca_esq) is an attorney who provides pro-bono and humanitarian services with her partner Tsion Gurmu to Ethiopian, and Eritrean asylum seekers including black migrants who are stuck at the Mexico border. We have been following Rebecca closely for years and this resilient soul has taken it upon herself and made it her life’s mission to fight for the helpless and be a voice for the voiceless. Rebecca’s life is mainly on the road, traveling to the borders and to detention centers, providing humanitarian services with a group of volunteers willing to help her after watching her tireless and continuous call for help on social media.
What Rebecca asks us to do are basic things such as donating clothing, food, and/or money, that everyone needs for survival- which most of us have in surplus amount. Those of us who came to the U.S., or migrate to a different country seeking peace and prosperity, and were given the privilege to build a home should not have to get constant reminders about what it’s like to be forsaken, to go hungry, to live in an uncertain situation, or our fight for survival. We should not be nudged to remember the tears that we shed when we too were fighting to find our ways. Whether we hopped on a plane or crossed borders on feet, we overcame difficulties of different magnitude just to settle here, even after having support systems. Therefore, it’s utterly heartbreaking to see that we need to get constant reminders about someone‘s suffering- our brothers and sisters call for help because they are out there cold, broken, hungry and dying. We should know better and we should do better.
Rebecca always emphasizes on how there isn't an amount that is too small to donate. Therefore, we are here to remind you that you don’t have to lose an arm to feed your brothers and sisters detained at the borders. You can start with a $1, $2, $15 donation. You can put a group together and collect clothing and snacks. You can reach out to your community and civic groups and ask for small contributions, you can lend your time and volunteer. There are multiple ways that you can support people like Rebecca because ultimately they are doing all the work and with our help, they can go a long way and change lives.
The resilience and drive it takes to do what Rebecca is doing is simply unmatched and all it takes from our end is to donate from the comfort of our seats, share the work she is doing on social media and have conversations with our friends and colleagues too. Start by sharing this article, and the link to the video to tell her story, and clicking on the go fund me link to donate an amount that we feel comfortable with. Surely, we have so many options to choose on how we can make a difference so- please, lets!
If you are reading this article or watching the video, you are now fully aware on how with each passing second, someone who looks like you is breaking into pieces, as you would too, if you were in their position. The question is, what are you going to do about it? In the words of Maya Angelou, "when you get give, when you learn teach"
If you are a dreamer working towards your dream goals, then we ask that you remember, Asylees have dreams too and it’s is called “survival”. However, with your generosity, you can help to slowly transform their ' Dream of Survival' to “Hope” and ultimately rev their engine to Dream Bigger by letting them know that you care, and that better days will come. We rise when we lift others.
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“Inspiring Dreamers to Become Go-Getters”
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