|
|
Dear WAT Community,
As a fellow WAT member, I'm writing you on behalf of the Guantanamo Survivors Fund (GSF), which I helped found nearly three years ago. As the WAT member on the team, I was certain that GSF is a natural outgrowth of WAT's deep commitment to all the Muslim men who have suffered in Guantanamo prison.
GSF's goal is simple: to raise money and send it to Guantanamo survivors in distress. We help them build new lives after their years-long ordeal at the hands of our government. It's been gratifying to finally be able to do something positive for the men!
So I'm reaching out to you, the WAT community: I'm asking for your help in the 2024 GSF end-of-the-year fundraising campaign. We want to raise $50,000 by the end of December so we can send grants to at least 15 Guantanamo survivors in dire situations. If you have already donated, thank you. If you can donate now, thank you. If you can share this campaign with your friends, thank you. (Added value: through Dec 31 donations will be matched by an anonymous donor!)
In WAT we witness; and with GSF, we deliver: From its inception, the Guantanamo Survivors Fund has been fully supported by the WAT Organizing Team. As a member of the WAT community, I hope you'll help us reach our goal. And I hope to see many of you in January for WAT's Zoom circles!
In peace and solidarity with each of you,
Helen Schietinger
WAT Organizing Team and GSF Board of Directors |
|
Guantanamo Survivors Fund: a WAT LegacyWitness Against Torture has lifted up the Muslim men locked in Guantanamo ever since 2005, when 25 people traveled to Cuba and walked to the gates of the US Base to fast and pray with and for them. WAT's public witness centers the men through the iconic image of a person in an orange jump suit with a black hood, underlining the cruelty of Guantanamo Prison. We have traveled to Cuba, fasted, vigiled and demonstrated, written to the men, told their stories, brought their names into US jails and courtrooms, enacted countless tableaus portraying their humanity to the public, to Congress, and to the President. As Luaya said on the Ellipse in 2013, "You cannot steal years of men's lives based on nothing but torture and bribes." We won't forget.The Guantanamo Survivors Fund is a natural outgrowth of Witness Against Torture's deep commitment to the men, which is WAT's heart and soul. We know that hundreds of men have been transferred from Guantanamo into situations where they are surveilled, not given travel or working papers, are too disabled to work, and are unable to support themselves and their families. Our government does nothing, so we must do something.In short, WAT reaches out to and advocates for the men who are or have been imprisoned and tortured at Guantanamo prison. And GSF provides concrete assistance to survivors who have been abandoned by the US. 
So help Guantanamo Survivors Fund raise $50,000 by Dec 31!
The Guantanamo Survivors Fund (GSF) aims to raise $50,000 by the end of the year to provide grants to at least 15 survivors needing our help. Your donation can really make a difference: every dollar donated before Jan 1 will be matched by a generous donor.
GSF has already helped 40 Guantanamo survivors cover needs like housing and food, surgery, medical care and medicine, and means for a livelihood.
Let's keep going! |
|
Get Guantanamo news regularly
Guantanamo Survivors Fund provides a free e-Newsletter: a weekly digest of the latest articles and blogs about Guantanamo Bay Prison and Guantanamo survivors. |
|
Donate to support our workPlease consider a donation to help fund WAT's expenses. We are completely volunteer-driven and run. We have no paid staff; all of the money you donate goes to funding the work we do together.
Click here to donate to WAT.
WAT centers the men transferred out of Guantanamo through the Guantanamo Survivors Fund (GSF), also volunteer-run.
Click here to donate to Guantanamo Survivors Fund. Who we areWitness Against Torture was formed in 2005 when 25 Americans went to Guantánamo Bay and attempted to visit the detention facility. They began to organize more broadly to shut down Guantánamo, end indefinite detention and torture and call out Islamophobia. During our demonstrations, we lift up the words of the detainees themselves, bringing them to public spaces they are not permitted to access. Witness Against Torture will carry on in its activities until torture is decisively ended, its victims are fully acknowledged, Guantánamo and similar facilities are closed, and those who ordered and committed torture are held to account.
www.witnessagainsttorture.com |
|
|
|
| |
|
