Dear John,

I am writing to remind you that AFSC’s Annual Fund drive is in the final stretch. Supporters like you have played a critical role in supporting communities worldwide this year. I hope you make a gift to our Annual Fund by June 30 to help us reach our goal and support communities until we are all free from poverty, violence, and oppression.

I also want you to know why it is so important to me, personally, that we meet our goal of raising $80,000 this month to keep our fundraising on track for this year.

Before I became AFSC’s general secretary and moved to the U.S., I lived most of my life under Israeli military occupation. In 1948, my mother’s family, like so many others, was forced out of their home in Jerusalem’s Old City. Today, even before the recent military attacks on Gaza and the horrific home expulsions taking place in East Jerusalem, my mother, who lives in Ramallah, could not accompany me on visits to Jerusalem – the city of her childhood and of my birth. Our movement and freedoms, as Palestinians, are restricted – as they have been for decades. 

I know how much it meant to families displaced in 1948 that AFSC responded to a request from the United Nations to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians living in refugee camps. I also know how important AFSC’s work in the occupied Palestinian territory has been in the seven decades since – and what it means to people now. In the wake of devastating violence and ongoing oppression, we are working both to meet urgent humanitarian needs and to end the occupation, protect human rights, and usher in a future where everyone can live in safety and peace.

When people look back on the global pandemic we are now experiencing, the actions we take today will also be remembered. Please help us make it a story of compassion, courage, and solidarity by making a gift today. 

We need to keep standing with communities across the U.S. who are losing loved ones not only to COVID-19, but also to police killings, mass incarceration, and the detention and deportation of immigrants. And we need to keep standing with communities around the world facing surges of the virus without enough access to hygiene supplies or vaccines. 

AFSC is a global community of people who believe in the transforming power of love. We help one another through times of emergency, and we also know the importance of being there for each other for the long haul. We need to if we are to truly live together in a world free of poverty, oppression, and violence.

Your gift to the 2021 Annual Fund today will make a difference. 

I wish you and your loved ones every strength in navigating these times, and hope you are taking good care. Thank you for all the ways you keep helping us show the world what love can do.