I am writing this on behalf of a Bedouin friend that I recently made while visiting Petra, a UNESCO world heritage site in Jordan. I have not gone into detail about her on social media because it is forbidden in her culture to be photographed, or hang out on social media. Since my return home, however, we have exchanged music, photos and conversations via FaceTime and What's App. I've met her sister and her disabled husband, as well as several of her friends who also make their living selling their wares in Petra. She has invited me to return whenever I want and stay with her. That said, the reason I am creating a GoFundMe page is to help her recover from a devistating event.
A few days after we left Petra, they had an extremely cold night. She spent it in her cave up in the mountains. She wore wool and had a fire going to keep her warm. I have photos of her covered feet warming in the cave near the flames. The next morning she walked down to her shop to wait for the tourists to arrive. The shop, is the way in which she supports her family.
That morning the mountains were covered in snow. I requested and received a lovely photo to show me what Petra looks like with snow. A couple of hours later, I received her bad news via a voice message: someone had stolen ALL of the scarfs in her shop.
Now when I say shop, I mean stall. I'd been in that stall just days before. It's a structure built to keep out the sun, wind and some sand. It has three walls, a roof and is open air. There is no electricity, so no heating or air conditioning. There were at least a hundred scarfs on the interior walls of her stall when I was there. Lots were hand made using camel hair, wools, silk, cotton etc. There was even a section of hand made scarfs by a local women's collective.
Fatima was devistated.
Over the last week, I have tossed ideas around with her and quickly acknowledged we come from very different cultures and living circumstances. None of my suggestions work for Bedouins living in a desert without electricity or readily available wood. The lowest common denominator is that she needs money. She needs money to build a metal gate / door so that she can lock up her shop at night. She also needs to replenish her inventory. She estimated that she needs 700 JD (approximatly 1,000.00 at the time of this writing) to install a gate. Then, of course, she needs to restock inventory so she has something to sell. She had never heard of crowd sourcing.
I spoke with her today. She is at her wits end. No income now or in the foreseeable future. Over 1,000 tourists have arrived today in Petra and she has nothing to sell.
As much as I would like to go into more detail; share with you the photos I have before and after the theft, the images of her with her bright smile (before all this happened), specific details of how and why we became friends, how her husband became disabled, what (of her personal possessions) she has tried (but failed) to sell... I cannot. -Because she is forbidden to be photographed or participate on social media.
I am only sending this GoFundMe to my friends so as not to accidently expose her. The money will come to me and I've already worked out how to get it to her. If you are not sure about where to start: $25.00 would be great. More, of course, would be even better. Seriously, anything would help.
I'm hoping that this crowd sourcing tool can assist her in digging out of this challenging situation. If you have questions, I'm happy to talk with you about this in detail, but not on social media. Feel free to call me at 415-312-8050. I will begin this fund drive with $50.00
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
-Iris
