We found a way to feel less helpless

And you’re welcome to join us, if you’d like

Author

Distribute Aid
November 04, 2025

We’re organizing a live fundraiser to send a container full of humanitarian aid to Palestine. If you scroll down a bit, you’ll find the event info.

And if you’ve been conscious at any point during the last two years, you’ll know why the aid is needed. 

But right now we’d like to talk about the power and the joy of working with people who share your feelings of we gotta f******* do something about this.

To put that last bit in context: we’ve been planning this event with the Palestine Hurra Collective (PHC), a Nashville-based grassroots group. They trace their origins back to the start of the genocide, when local activists realized there was no organization in the city dedicated to Palestinian liberation.

So they decided to start their own. And since then, they’ve been putting their principles into practice through mutual aid, direct action, and community building. Today they have dozens of engaged members, and strong working relationships with like-minded organizations in their area (and around the world). 

After working on this fundraiser together, it’s easy to see why they’ve been so successful.

Everyone brings a gift to the table

Anyone who’s planned a big event knows how many moving parts are involved, and how easy it is for the whole thing to go haywire. Booking a venue, finding a caterer, inviting performers, making a run of show, publicizing the event… if even one person isn’t pulling their weight, the whole plan can break down.

But the opposite is also true. When everyone involved cares deeply about what they’re doing—when they’re passionate in a real and meaningful sense, not just business-passionate—the results can exceed your expectations.

One of our friends at PHC found a venue that perfectly fit our needs, and another found a Palestinian caterer who offered to give food for over 100 people for free (we insisted on paying, for the record). Others helped connect us to musicians, artists, and photographers. Our Nashville friends even hooked us up with volunteers to set up the event and run the ticket tables.

Every person involved in planning this event was a load-bearing pillar. 

Ugh, it’s true: there’s joy in doing the work

It’s very easy (and justified) to be cynical about the world we live in. Who can blame people for being suspicious of smiling strangers who say they share your beliefs, and then start discussing all the tasks that must be done to achieve your goals?

On the other hand, when it turns out those strangers are just as committed as you are, that feeling is one of the most exhilarating things a human can experience.

The word “reinvigorating” gets overused a lot these days, but sometimes it’s the only label that fits. Working with PHC has been a reminder of what mutual aid looks like at its best: a diverse group of people with different skillsets all giving maximum effort to achieve a common goal, each one of them adding a vital piece to the puzzle. 

Together, we’re going to send a container full of aid to the people of Palestine. If you’d like to join us, here are the details: :

Event details:

And if you can’t attend but you’d still like to donate (thank you! that’s incredibly kind!) here’s the link.

Quick hits

Here are a few more things you might find interesting: