Support translators and linguists in Gaza!

A message from RCT Arabic team co-director Gheed:

My name is Gheed Alhessi, and I’m writing to you from northern Gaza. Thank you for the service and support you give to Respond Crisis Translation. The support from the RCT community allows me to feel hope, to hold on tightly to my goals. Words and language remain my solace and my dream.

Sadly, when the war broke out, everything changed for me. My family and I fled our beloved home under relentless bombardment, leaving everything behind. We lost everything – our haven, savings, books, documents and all our beautiful memories.

In 2023, I joined RCT as a linguist on the Arabic team, and that support was a lifeline. It meant I could buy medicine for my mother, who suffers from nerve damage, clothes to replace what we had lost, and even a pair of shoes for myself. Later, RCT offered me a role as Co-Director of the Arabic team. That opportunity changed everything. It gave me more than income, it gave me purpose, hope, and dignity. I was able to move from a tent into a small rented home and bring my mother back to Gaza City. For the first time in months, we had running water, a functioning toilet, clean pillows, and a sliver of privacy.

I used to say: “Even if this house is bombed, at least we’ll die with our heads on clean pillows, and my mother will have some peace, inside four walls.”

RCT has been my anchor. It gave me the means to support my family with honor and to help others in return. If I were to die tomorrow, I would die in peace, knowing I spent my life helping refugees and migrants from Yemen, Syria, Palestine, Sudan, and beyond. That I was someone of worth to the innocent, humble Palestinians around me, people who not only deserve life, but love it fiercely.

This isn’t just my story. It’s the story of thousands of crisis-impacted linguists in RCT’s network: my fellow linguists, from Palestine, Sudan, Haiti, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and so many more places where war and crisis prevail, but where the resistance and steadfastness of the people remain alive. I ask you to prioritize us. Fight for us. Your support is more than aid. It is a message. It tells linguists like me that we matter. That we’re seen. That even in the darkest moments of our lives, someone believes in our right to live with dignity, to work with purpose, and to hope for a better tomorrow.

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