Healing to Hope’s Next Chapter

Dear Healing to Hope Community,

In the midst of genocide, brutal violence, and mass starvation in Gaza and increased settler violence and illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank, Healing to Hope strengthens our commitment both to Anar’s vital work and to the struggle for lasting justice in Palestine. We share this update to help renew your own belief in the healing potential of Palestinian-led, community-based psychosocial support and artistic healing programs for children, caregivers, and communities. 

Thanks to all of you, the Breaking the Cycle tour allowed us to reach our goals and realize our vision in profound ways this summer. It was a gift for all of us at Healing to Hope to witness Anar Executive Director Rami Khader’s extraordinary presentations and to spend so much time with the whole Khader family. We know the same is true for many of you, and we’re grateful for the generous donors, volunteers, and audiences who made this tour not just possible, but deeply meaningful. Please read on for Rami’s own first-person reflections.

Because of your commitment to building the movement for hope, healing, and justice for Palestinian children, caregivers, and communities, we met our financial goal of raising $100,000 during the tour, made extraordinary new friends and community partners, and more than doubled our contact list.

During the Chicago leg of our tour, we found out that Healing to Hope is now an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This means we can now accept tax-deductible donations on our very own donor portal. Please read on for more information about how to help us meet our remaining goal of $64,000 for 2025 and our projected commitments for 2026 so we can continue to serve Palestinian children and caregivers in immediate need of support.

We’ve taken some time after the tour to prepare for the next chapter of Healing to Hope’s work, and we hope you’ll join us in learning more about some important developments:

• Healing to Hope now has our own Vimeo site. If you weren’t able to witness Rami’s words during the Breaking the Cycle tour, you can now watch his full presentations in Minneapolis and Chicago.

• We have our first Healing to Hope Board Chair. Rev. Mark S. Hanson, who served as presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (2001-2013) and President of the Lutheran World Federation (2003-2010), has graciously agreed to lead our board, and we couldn’t be more grateful.

• Many of you generously contributed to the purchase of a vehicle in late 2024/early 2025 to support Anar’s staff in traveling more easily from site to site in the West Bank. Anar is now actively using this vehicle, and it makes a tremendous difference for their ability to serve multiple communities.

• Thanks to the success of the Breaking the Cycle tour, Rami will be returning to the U.S. for a week from Sep 27 to Oct 3 to visit Washington, DC and Chicago. We will share more information about these visits very soon, but if you’re in the DC area, mark your calendars for an important series of events Sep 27-28.

Please read on for more details about the tour and our larger work and consider making a donation today. Thank you for your commitment to justice in Palestine and your support of healing and hope for Palestinian children, caregivers, and communities.

Sarah Myers, Healing to Hope ED

Tour Highlights

During the Breaking the Cycle tour this past June, Anar Executive Director Rami Khader and his family visited Atlanta, Chicago, the Twin Cities, and the Bay Area/Sacramento/Chico. In each city, Healing to Hope hosted presentations, community gatherings, and arts events to raise awareness about Anar’s vital work in the West Bank. The tour provided many meaningful, in-depth opportunities for those in the U.S. to join the commitment to justice, hope, and healing for Palestinian children, caregivers, and communities.

Rami’s Tour Reflections

This tour was deeply personal for me—far beyond a series of destinations or scheduled events, it felt like a lifeline after nearly two years spent trying to hold myself strong in a land shadowed by loss, fear, and the unbearable weight of genocide. Working each day with children and caregivers who have witnessed violence and oppression, whose eyes held uncertainty and whose voices sometimes trembled with questions about the future, challenged me in ways I could never have anticipated.

When I set out to start Anar in the summer of 2023, I could not have imagined that a genocide would unfold within months, making an already arduous life nearly impossible. There were days when exhaustion and despair washed over me—days I felt humiliated, or afraid for my own safety near Israeli settlers, and nights when my spirit felt numb and brittle. Yet, beneath it all, a quiet voice reminded me of the responsibility I carried. It told me that, in this darkest of times, I had been offered a platform to support the children of God—children who are not numbers, but souls yearning for hope, for just a glimmer to keep them moving forward. It became clear, through hardship and heartbreak alike, that this calling was never about me, nor even just about my colleagues. We were given the chance so that we might give, entrusted with a mission to offer healing where wounds run deep.

Among the individuals I deeply respect is the late Palestinian American intellectual Edward Said, who once stated, “The worst aspect of displacement is the loss of context and memory.” I invoked this quote during my presentation as I shared stories from Palestine—accounts of colleagues, children, and families who continue to live under occupation, or who have tragically lost their lives. These narratives are not just personal; they are a way to restore context, to preserve memory, and to bring the human experience into focus. By sharing these stories, I hope to deepen understanding of the profound challenges faced by Palestinian children, and to emphasize the importance of bearing witness and amplifying their voices.

I’m especially grateful that my family joined me on this tour. For them, Healing to Hope is not just a sister organization—it is family. And the colleagues at Healing to Hope are not just partners; they are people we deeply love and feel connected to. This tour was a gift for all of us. The children returned home with more than memories—they came back with meaningful relationships that extended far beyond work. These connections are now a part of who we are.

What remains most clearly in our hearts is the overwhelming sense that we are not alone. We are surrounded by friends, colleagues, and partners who truly see us, support us, and walk this journey with us.

Giving to Healing to Hope

As many of you know, Healing to Hope has been operating as a nonprofit organization since Summer 2024, but we’ve been waiting for many months to receive our official status 501(c)(3) from the IRS. Thankfully, that day arrived right in the middle of the Breaking the Cycle tour!

We are incredibly grateful to all of you for helping us meet our $100,000 fundraising goal for the tour. We hope you will consider making an additional or first-time donation as we strive to reach our remaining $64,000 goal for 2025 and meet our commitment to support more Palestinian children and caregivers in the West Bank through our partnership with Anar.

As Anar serves more and more children from Hebron and Bethlehem to Nablus and Tulkarem, grows its multi-pronged programs for children who have experienced arrests and detention in Israeli prisons, and develops its new Expressive Arts Unit that uses the arts (including creative writing, puppets, and theater) as therapeutic interventions, we need your support now more than ever. Our plans extend well beyond this year, as we commit to creating a sustainable structure of giving for 2026 and beyond.

Creative Visions was an extraordinary fiscal sponsor for us during the tour, making it possible for donors to make tax-deductible donations before we had our own portal; we couldn’t be more grateful for their support. As we move to our own donor portal, Creative Visions will be sunsetting our account. If you set up a recurring donation through Creative Visions, we hope you will move your gift to our new portal. Please reach out to info@healingtohope.org with questions.

Anar’s Latest Work

Anar’s support of children and caregivers continues to deepen in impact throughout the West Bank. Here is just a small sample of the meaningful work bringing communities together in August:

• The growth of Anar’s Expressive Arts Unit is underway, as staff conduct sessions with children and caregivers in Hindaza, Dar Salah, Um Salomona, Al-Khudher, Al-Masra, Al-Dahisha, and Aida camps, as well as Bethlehem.

• Anar began a psychosocial support group for caregivers in the Old Town of Hebron in collaboration with the Ibeer Cultural Library. Residents of Hebron’s Old Town face extraordinary challenges, and these sessions provide a safe space for self-care, stress management, and peer support.

• Anar continued its collaboration with the Cancer Patients Association to help children cope with the challenges of chronic illness, develop communication skills, and find outlets for self-expression.

• Youth leaders in the Shababeek program gathered in Amman for a three-day course. After 21 training sessions during the first half of 2025, the trainees are now preparing to launch diverse community initiatives throughout Bethlehem.

Thank You

Thank you for supporting the work of Healing to Hope and Anar to advance the well-being and resilience of Palestinian children and caregivers impacted by violence and oppression. We appreciate our entire community for committing to the movement for justice and healing in Palestine.