Please help us to support our precious friend of many decades, Halimah Shabazz (birth name Cynthia Wade). Regardless of if you can contribute, please help by sharing our campaign for Halimah with your contacts.

Halimah is a community treasure. She is threatened by a health crisis that has reached a critical point. Her passionate commitment to alternative education, social and environmental justice and radical political activism throughout her life is a testament to her steadfast dedication as a servant to the people. She is an organizer of many community events sharing the culture of Black people giving voice to Black people's contributions to the world. Halimah's volunteerism has graced many organizations; she is a mother and now a dedicated scholar.

She entered college in her sixties, earning a bachelor's in Organizational Behavior and a Master's degree in Library and Information Science. Her accumulated life and political experience give her a unique and needed voice and vision. The University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Graduate College recognized her brilliance and awarded her a Ph.D. fellowship in Library annd Information Sciences, in which she is inspired, engaged, and excelling.

Halimah is truly a miracle. She has faced and overcome many life-threatening health challenges. By age 11, she had been in the hospital over 100 times. She survived and thrived, including giving birth to two sons. She has had 13 major surgeries and hundreds of minor surgical and medical procedures.

Now she is threatened by a health crisis that has reached a critical point—requiring her to step back from her studies to focus on health and seek medical treatment. IgG4 is a progressive, autoimmune-mediated rare disease that can affect multiple organ systems with tumor-like masses. It was discovered less than 20 years ago, and much is not yet understood. The treatment available in the United States is heavy steroids, some cancer medications, and sometimes surgery. In Halimah's case, the mass of inflammation and fibrous tendons are inside her head. She has an extremely rare form of the disease not connected to any specific organ, which affects less than 1% of all IgG4 cases. The mass is inoperable because of its location. The growth is the size of a golf ball and affects the eye, nose, and ear on the left side of her face. The fibrous tendons have encircled many nerves, entangling the left jugular bulb and exerting pressure on the critical structures in her head.

Halimah is knowledgeable in herbal and other natural healing systems, which she has diligently employed in partnership with western medicine pharmacology. But she could not tolerate the mega-steroids and was forced to stop them. Unfortunately, the pseudotumor is nearing her brain stem. This dire prognosis endangers her life and calls for urgent action.

She has researched what other treatments exist globally and spoken to several doctors she's known for decades and family and community members. The consensus is her best hope for recovery is to go to Japan as soon as possible, where the treatment approach to IgG4 is less toxic including traditional Asian modalities.

Our financial goal includes travel, treatment, housing, and living expenses in Japan.

Please help us by donating any amount. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.