Help Us Heal After the Storm

STARTING WITH GRATITUDE: On behalf of the people of Appalachia, we are grateful for the kindness of longtime locals & strangers alike who’ve shown up to help in the face of travesty.

FOR THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW: Hurricane Helene wiped out many mountain towns around Asheville & Western North Carolina. 126,000 homes damaged or destroyed. 822,000 acres of trees down in one county alone. 1,000 bridges gone. Loved ones & livelihoods washed away. Catastrophe beyond imagination. And though we are resilient, we need your help, especially for long haul recovery. Below is one way you can help a local, heartfelt, women-led healing initiative.

THIS IS OUR STORY: Since week 1, a local mutual aid collective of women practitioners came together—providing hundreds of free massage, acupuncture & somatic trauma therapy sessions to heavy hit survivors of the storm + hardcore volunteers who are (still!) working around the clock: search-and-rescue teams, debris clean-up crews, community organizers, chain-sawyers, river-tenders, supply runners & more. Folks who dropped everything to give hundreds of hours in an unprecedented time of need. For them, our Healing Hub is a sanctuary of desperately needed support & care. Meanwhile, as an all-volunteer collective with very real overhead expenses, we can’t keep the Healing Hub going without your support & this is far from over.

YOUR SUPPORT HELPS US: Your donation directly helps us to: 1) Continue providing hundreds of healing sessions each month to those who need them most, and 2) Pay real bills so we can keep giving this critical care. Donating also means that you have our backs so that we can keep the Healing Hub going for the long haul.

YOUR DONATION DIRECTLY ENSURES

• 200+ sessions per month: Ongoing massage, acupuncture & somatic trauma therapy for those who lost everything + who are volunteering countless hours.

• Weekly Wellness Days: Each week, we support search & retrieval teams who are still searching for bodies so that families can have some final peace & closure.

• Covering bills: Help our small team of women keep the Healing Hub going. After 12 weeks of nonstop volunteering, please help us cover overhead, ie: rent, electric, heat, water, wifi, etc.

STORIES FROM THE GROUND: Here are real stories from our community when they come in for free sessions:

“We were smashed by the hurricane & lost a lot. Everything else that survived was damaged. I have since been volunteering at the church to help my community rebuild & have done so without pay now for the entire time.”

“I’m a single mom that was recommended to book a session, my home was demolished & everything in it from flooding & mold.”

“I have worked almost every day since the floods organizing mutual aid. I am the operations manager for the infant feeding coalition.”

“I’m the founder of United Appalachia, a mutual aid organization. We’ve been on the frontlines since day 3 helping various communities & organizations get supplies & distributing to hard-to-reach areas. I’m exhausted. I’ve been doing so much heavy lifting that I’m just hoping to somehow find relief.”

“Water flooded under the home into our vents ruining our floors. There is mold in all cabinets which still need to be replaced & walls that have mold on the inside. We were not able to receive much help from FEMA & are currently awaiting on help with mold demolition.”

“I set up a disaster relief clinic that operated for the last 4 weeks, giving 235 free treatments to community members. I’m exhausted & could really use support myself.”

“Lifelong resident of WNC. Community organizer mobilizing supplies & over $10,000 of mutual aid funds to the folks who fall through the cracks of government support.”

WE’RE GRATEFUL FOR YOU: Truly! We can’t continue doing this without you. Every dollar brings relief & hope—a loving lifeline to those who’ve lost everything + overworked volunteers who are still going after months. Right now, your generosity means that we are in this together. Thank you for being part of the relief effort—please make a donation today.

Sincerely, the Healing Hub Collective

Read more about us here: www.WeAreWell.network

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