Everyone’s in need of something. There’s no denying or getting around it. This becomes especially apparent during the holidays, even more so this season when the COVID-19 pandemic has left countless in financial situations they could have never anticipated or prepared for. And just as we’ve had to adapt and do things a little differently, it may also be time to expand beyond dropping pocket change in red buckets during this time of year.
So, what if we skipped the middle man of big, faceless charity organizations and engaged directly with the community that we’re a part of?
The Savannah-based 912 Mutual Aid Fund seeks to close this very gap.
Born during the protests last summer, friends and fellow community believers, Asli Shebe-Tindi and Raine Blunk, saw an abundance of needs that extended far past their initial goal of bail funds. They brought in community stake-holder Lioah-Rose Waldron and created an Instagram page. Since then, they have shared nearly 200 posts on their feed and even more on their stories of individuals and families in need across Savannah and surrounding areas.
Of course, it’s important to note that mutual aid encompasses more than charitable monetary donations. For the 912, this distinction from charity is at the center of their culture.
“If you aren't organizing with [people] or trying to have a relationship, [then] that really is just charity,” Blunk says. “Mutual aid is more about forming connections around shared resources.”
“It's really in creating a complex network of communication and aid and resources amongst the community in a world that tells that community it doesn't have enough resources and it just should stay at home and believe that, struggle and try harder, instead of being smarter and more empathetic," Shebe-Tindi explained.
Credit: Photo provided
Credit: Photo provided
Empathy, a resource that seems to become more and more scarce, especially considering a heightened sense of isolation due to years of quarantining and social distancing. “It's a lot easier for people to claim their misery and stay in their homes and stay in their internet corners too and not be vulnerable when the world is like it is right now,” says Waldron. "It’s easy to stay distant, send off a check, drop money in a bucket, and disconnect from the community in the name of conflating charity with being a morally upstanding person."
How mutual aid helps others in the community
Mutual aid calls you to connect. It calls you to stop looking down at the money you’re giving away and start looking up into the eyes of the people you’re sharing resources with.
Shebe-Tindi says it’s a common conversation she encounters — the conversation surrounding the well-meaning but ultimately demeaning question of if that money you give to a houseless person will go to “good use.” Oftentimes, they ask those who raise those concerns: “What does that mean? What is ‘good use’ to you? Because, at the end of the day, it's good use to you.”
She boils it down to “[being] able to trust another human being to identify their immediate need.”
Even further, it boils down to a place of fear. We fear what and, more importantly, who we don’t know. Waldron also points to a “fear of being taken advantage of by another,” but she encourages that “the answer is the engagement. The answer is in the present moment.” There’s a level of honesty and vulnerability necessary to engage with another human like that. There’s an entire perspective shift necessary to even see others directly in front of us. And when we open our eyes to look into another’s that, in turn, leaves us open to be looked at.
Amidst all of our common human fears, that level of deep connection and intimacy nears the top of the list. Waldron explains honesty is a solution that is both easy to name yet difficult to practice. “Once you embrace the love of the community and realize how it can embrace you back even when you feel like you have nothing to give,” she says, “it defeats any fear within you about what resources you can bring to other people, and if they're going to misuse them, because what power do we [really] have over that?”
It’s all in surrendering what already does not belong to us. Throughout this pandemic, many can attest to the fact that sometimes it doesn’t matter how hard you work or how much you save or how good you think you are, life takes from the best of us with a cold indifference. It’s in understanding that where we find common ground with people we’re told we have nothing to do with.
“Just let go and start contributing,” Blunk says. “And it gets easier everyday because then you start to see that houseless person on the street and you don't look at them like they're evil anymore.”
While the 912 Mutual Aid Fund is built upon a solid foundation of ideals and was born out of an immediate response to an inciting event, they assure the community that they’re in it for the long haul. They have plans to make educational resources available for Savannah and the surrounding areas in order to members learn how to help each other in the most efficient ways. They’ve also opened a Patreon where people can commit to a lifestyle of sharing and community contribution, rather than a remote, one-time gift.
Shebe-Tindi recalls a friend that budgets for mutual aid, taking a percentage from each pay stub every month, much like one would for tithing. And even if that level of financial commitment isn’t possible for some, Shebe-Tindi assures that sharing their posts go a long way.
Credit: Shaye Garrigan
Credit: Shaye Garrigan
“The internet is vast. Share, interact, which means, especially with Instagram, liking, commenting, saving the post, sharing it regularly,” she said. “[Instagram]’s notorious for hating people who are trying to do good work, it seems.”
At the end of the day, despite the uphill battles of picky algorithms, Blunk emphasizes that it’s a marathon not a sprint. Waldron echos him, saying, “We’re trying to normalize this. It’s not going to stop. People are not going to stop needing help.”
And the 912 Mutual Aid Fund is not going to stop giving those people the help they not only need but deserve.
Learn more at 912maf.com or on Instagram at @912maf.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: The 912 Mutual Aid Fund encourages community engagement along with giving back this holiday season
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