Support ShiShi's Urgent Medical Needs

DISCLAIMER:

Some of you may have noticed that this is not ShiShi’s first personal fundraiser - at the beginning of this year, ShiShi put out a call for financial support (after much coaxing from loved ones, as ShiShi is most reluctant to fundraise for personal needs), and community came through beautifully! From that fundraiser, ShiShi was able to access thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies and other necessities, both for ShiShi and the little one.

While I don’t believe most of you would think otherwise, it bears repeating that being chronically ill, being multiply disabled in this country, and being a working class single parent, is a horrifically expensive existence.

Not only have ShiShi’s conditions worsened, with new conditions actively surfacing, but ShiShi’s child is also disabled, and has received recent additional diagnoses which require extensive weekly therapies and medical equipment, including reinforced furniture items, specialized shoes, leg braces, compression garments, and more.

Furthermore, due to the inherent and overt anti-Blackness of our medical system and many of its providers, ShiShi has been denied referrals, necessary medications, and insurance coverage for countless essential services and supplies, meaning that much of these medical costs has fallen to ShiShi to pay for out of pocket.

ShiShi is deeply grateful for all past support up until this point, and although it shouldn’t be necessary, ShiShi is willing to provide a comprehensive breakdown of how all past funds were used, in order to illuminate why more funds are needed now.

Mutual aid is ongoing, and disability and illness, for many, are permanent, meaning the need for support is continual.

IMMEDIATE ASK: ShiShi is in urgent need of financial support for:

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A letter from ShiShi’s friend:

Dear caring community members,

Hi <3 I’m writing this call for support on behalf of my dear friend ShiShi Rose, whom many of you know and love for: endless, extraordinary contributions to the world of birthwork and doula care; for providing extensive, ongoing education on the intersections of COVID, anti-Blackness and colonial violence; for tireless advocacy for all peoples resisting the crushing forces of empire; for crowdsourcing *millions* of dollars for Black pregnant and parenting individuals, and for being the mountain-moving parent to a brilliant, high-support needs four year old.

Behind ShiShi’s public image, behind that immeasurable and continuous legacy, is a friend, a neighbor, a solo parent, a real human being dealing with an excruciating and rapidly escalating level of pain, and illness. It is my hope that we can call on community, friends and strangers alike, to show up for ShiShi in this moment when the present is wholly terrifying, and the future more tenuous than ever before.

Given ShiShi’s astounding public record of community care work, and due to the way Black women and mothers are held to superhuman standards, I believe many people may have a skewed idea of ShiShi’s actual well-being and stability. Mothers, particularly Black mothers, are expected to build the world anew each day for their children without complaint, after all. And truly, when you look at any of ShiShi’s social media platforms or just share a text conversation, it can appear that education and support flow from ShiShi as effortlessly and naturally as rainfall. However, as many of us know, the most tireless community advocates are often the most overextended, vulnerable, multiply disabled, and burnt out individuals among us.

For the past five years ShiShi has navigated escalating levels of chronic illness that have coalesced into a full-blown emergent health crisis. The ongoing pandemic has not only left ShiShi debilitated and dangerously weakened by COVID-induced/exacerbated disease, but the rampant COVID denialism and capitalist individualism pushed upon our society has left ShiShi without any form of consistent, long-term support whatsoever, aside from the efforts of a precious few close friends. ShiShi has lost countless friends, family, and work opportunities to illness, other people’s COVID denialism, for standing firmly as an anti-Zionist, and for daring to ask loved ones to actually deliver on their promises of showing up to help. If we come together in this virtual space, we can at least ensure ShiShi’s most pressing needs are met for the time being. Please do not mishear me when I say that this, right now, is an *emergency*.

With love and gratitude,

Syl (they/them), on behalf of ShiShi Rose

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P.S.

I didn’t write all of this because of “deservingness” or because only the most productive members of society deserve support - I’m writing it because *everyone* deserves support, and ShiShi adheres to that ethos and provides that support for others, more readily and consistently than anyone I’ve ever met. I cannot continue to watch as ShiShi pours from an empty glass for everyone else, creates something out of nothing every single moment, while being left to die alone. ShiShi (and each one of us) needs a village of on-site community support that simply doesn’t exist in this climate, and in the absence of that, material support is the next best thing.

ShiShi has been hesitant to send out a renewed call for help because so many are in need in this world, so I’m sending out the call. ShiShi lives by “we keep us safe”, and ShiShi *is* us, is the community, not a hero or a god who doesn’t need all the same things we do. Thank you all for showing up in the ways that you can - it means everything.