Gaza is starving. If you’ve been horrified and haunted by what you’ve seen on Instagram lately – including images of babies and children who are starving – here’s a way to turn your overwhelm into action and help get aid into the hands of those who need it.
Dianne Ludwig is a doer.
As she watched what was happening in Gaza in late 2023, she knew immediately that she had to act. She had to help.
She had a following on Instagram, where she runs a vintage clothing page (@welcomeback_slowfashion), so she started using that platform to share what she was seeing – the genocide of the Palestinian people.
She started selling vintage clothing where the donations would go directly to helping those in Gaza.
“As the months rolled on, watching and sharing daily massacres of civilians, or assassinations of journalists in Gaza, and then the same day trying to get excited to post and talk about beautiful vintage or how to care for garments was getting more difficult,” she says.
And so she stopped trying to balance the two, and instead dedicated her page completely to mutual aid fundraising. She started out fundraising for charities operating in Gaza, by selling donated clothes, but over time decided to help families directly.
Now, each week her community supports families in Gaza to buy essential items.
“Our community has been supporting six to seven families or more in Gaza every week for over six months,” says Dianne. “This week we donated to fourteen families in total, over 100 people. This last week we had over seventy people donate to the weekly care fund. The community has grown in recent weeks, and that’s simply a reflection of the fact that the situation is becoming more catastrophic by the day, and more people here are desperate to do something to help.”
The mutual aid money she raises is paid to the families for them to buy food and water, fire wood for cooking, or nappies for kids, medications, basics to survive, but finding any of these items is also a daily challenge for them.
Dianne is in daily contact with the families she supports. Right now she knows that food is terrifyingly scarce – and expensive.
“The limited food that becomes available in the markets in Gaza is sold at astronomical prices, for example one of our Mum’s Samah told me a week ago that a kilo of potatoes which before the genocide cost NZ$1, is now NZ$18,” says Dianne. “Prices vary, and usually increase every day as man-made starvation increases, this morning I was told rice is now NZ$40 a kilo.”
“Almost everyone in Gaza has lost their jobs and incomes, and homes, so mutual aid to families has become a critical life line. There is an assumption made by many that there is free aid, but most people aren’t receiving this, and have to buy. Israel has had a complete choke hold on Gaza since 8 October 2023, cutting off electricity, water, severely limiting and even stopping aid and supplies entering altogether. Israel controls every entry point into Gaza, even the sea and air.”
Today, a limited amount of supplies were allowed to be dropped by air into Gaza. It’s a tiny fraction of what is needed.
Having been in contact with her families for significant stretches of time now – some nearly two years – Dianne says her conversations have become more and more devastating as time goes on.
“In the early days when I first started connecting with families in Gaza, although their situation was very difficult, the conversations were a lot easier,” she says. “Their homes had been bombed, jobs lost, education on hold as schools and Universities were destroyed, but they had hope they could return and rebuild and resume life. We talked about everything from marriage plans, joking about everyday life, sharing cooking and food photos, and how we’d meet one day soon and drink coffee, share a meal.
“Now we are nearing the final stage of the genocide our daily conversations are all about hunger, going to market daily and finding no or little food, how much food is costing, which of their children are suffering malnutrition. We don’t even bother to talk anymore about the shock and fear of the daily bombings and massacres by Israel, death surrounds them. One of my friends in North Gaza, Mahmoud said last week, ‘the bombings are bad, but the hunger is worse’.”
She’s fearful for her families – who, in order to try to feed their children, seek help from the aid stations. In doing so, they risk their lives.
“Some of our families are risking being shot by seeking aid,” she says. “This week one of our father’s Alaa went every day waiting for aid, dodging artillery fire, but didn’t get anything. So little is put out and the aid stations are open for only 15 minutes a day in just four locations which focus on driving the population south.”
She waits nervously to hear back from her families – all of whom have now had extended family members killed.
“Just recently my friend Mohammed, who I call Son, had his aunt and her children killed in their tent next to theirs in Mawasi. Alaa’s son Adam who is only six, miraculously survived a bullet to the head. Others I know here in Aotearoa who support families in Gaza all have similar stories of family members killed by the Israel Occupation forces.
“It’s an extremely grim situation unless world leaders intervene, which they haven’t in 21 months, and companies are forced to stop selling weapons to Israel and massive amounts of aid and medical support are brought into Gaza urgently, our friends in Gaza don’t stand a chance.”
How to Help
It can be hard to know exactly what to do. If you’ve spent any time on Instagram recently, you’ll no doubt have seen many images of starving children and families. It can be overwhelming.
Dianne says she feels that way too – and whenever she does, she tries to look at the bigger picture, as well as putting one little foot in front of the other as to what to do next.
“When I feel overwhelmed and powerless, which I sometimes do as things have only gotten worse, I remind myself those who are profiting from this genocide and land grab, want us to feel this way,” she says. “To feel like we can’t make a difference. But we do have significant power, and if we don’t exert that power we all can expect that what we see in Palestine, where there has been a total disregard for International law, will happen more frequently throughout the world, quite possibly even here.”
Here’s three things we can do, she says:
- “Our biggest power is what we spend our money on. There are a huge number of everyday brands that are connected with Israel. Local @boycottzine has developed effective resources to help identify brands to boycott. Everyone should check out resources, and audit their shopping habits. Other resources include the Nothanks and local halalkiwi apps which help you find alternative brands. We need many more people boycotting hard and encouraging their friends and family to do so.”
- “We all need to talk to our MPs and demand that they vote for the Chloe Swarbrick sponsored bill which will sanction Israel. MPs who don’t vote for this bill are basically saying they are comfortable continuing a relationship with an apartheid state who is committing genocide, war crimes and has been breaking international laws for decades.”
- “And of course there are donations to mutual aid, or the few charities who are still operating in Gaza. There are others too in Aotearoa supporting a multiple families via mutual aid in similar ways to me, including Emily @emilywritesnz and Bron @imbolc_lioness (you may know of others too!). Just about all my friends have adopted a family of their own in Gaza to support. Virtually every family in Gaza needs mutual aid donations to survive, and many have few or no donors.”
If you’d like to support Dianne in her fundraising for families who so desperately need it, send her a message on Instagram – @welcomeback_slowfashion – to connect in to donate cash or clothing.
“I always say no donation is too small, especially as pooled donations make a meaningful difference,” she says. “Many people have set up weekly APs with me. Some donate the price of a coffee weekly, others more if they can. A number of people have run their own fundraisers for our fund, which has all enabled us to keep the donations flowing every week.
“It’s a very scary time in the world, but what makes me hopeful is that many people see we can come together as a community to stand up collectively against evil.”
