Support Ana in Solidarity Tour to Palestine

To My Dear Family, Friends, and Community,

I have had the incredible privilege of working with a small group in Goshen, IN to start a new nonprofit called Michiana Voices for Middle East Peace . We are small but mighty and we recently celebrated our first year as an organization.

Through this work I have crossed paths with many amazing humans I never would have had the opportunity to meet. We have hosted folks from Bethlehem and Beit Sahour in the West Bank, Northern Gaza, South Africa, Canada, and all over Indiana. Each time I share a meal with a new guest or take in their stories, I am flooded with gratitude that this is what I get to do in life. What an incredible honor.

Now, it is time for me to be the visitor and witness lives and stories from within their own home: Palestine/Israel.

In May 2025, I will be traveling to Palestine/Israel as part of a Solidarity Tour with Indiana Center for Middle East Peace. While the last year has held many privileges, a steady income has not been one of them and I find myself lacking in funds. The trip is two weeks long and is filled with conversations, learnings and lectures with activists and workers on the ground. Three of these activists have been nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

My time there will be deeply impactful and emotional, and I'm positive I cannot fully prepare for it. However, my intention is to face each opportunity with an open heart, fully absorbing every story and cry in order to bring those voices to the country whose bombs have decimated their lives.

Any and all support is appreciated. I am beyond grateful to have the community I do and I look forward to a continued sharing of lives and stories.

My liberation is your liberation.

Your liberation is my liberation.

May we, one day, all know liberation.

“Some parents in Gaza have resorted to writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them should either they or the children be killed.” -CNN, 10/22/2023

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Use the black permanent marker with the ink that doesn’t bleed

if it gets wet, the one that doesn’t melt

if it’s exposed to heat

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Make the lines thick and clear

Add your special flourishes

so I can take comfort in seeing

my mama’s handwriting when I go to sleep

Write my name on my leg, Mama

and on the legs of my sisters and brothers

This way we will belong together

This way we will be known

as your children

Write my name on my leg, Mama

and please write your name

and Baba’s name on your legs, too

so we will be remembered

as a family

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Don’t add any numbers

like when I was born or the address of our home

I don’t want the world to list me as a number

I have a name and I am not a number

Write my name on my leg, Mama

When the bomb hits our house

When the walls crush our skulls and bones

our legs will tell our story, how

there was nowhere for us to run

-A poem by Zeina Azzam