It is impossible to keep track of all the locations where the banners are used. Today I tried to update the page with some highlights & diverse events. It is really impressive. You can see it on the website under ‘MEDIA’. Thank you all for using the banners and sharing your pictures with us. Also I am happy to know that we reach a lot of media. Also foreign media. This means that people in Gaza also know that at least we are thinking of them and remembering their martyrs.

Two special mentions:

1. Six different posters are out! You can find them on the website under ‘USE’. Also we have printed a batch. They will be visible in upcoming events.
2. At the past ICT events the banners were shown on the big screens during the breaks and before / after the hearings / sessions.

While the end of 2023 is approaching and we are all counting down to ceasefire, we know there will be many more hardships. It is more important than ever to keep pointing out we are talking about human lives that are destroyed. The lives of mainly children, including very young babies. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, funny, serious, intelligent, sportive, artistic.... any kind of people.

Not only the bombing causes so many deaths. Also the destruction of hospitals, destroying of places where people sought shelter, the refusal of aid (food, clean water, medicins, cloths...) and the winter that entered also Gaza. 

Let's keep talking about the people. Those who got killed and those that are struggling to survive.

The new postcards are also ready. They are spread in NL, but they can also be downloaded from the website.

It has been a while since an update I realize…

?? Banners keep spreading. They show up everywhere. A specific event to mention is the display of 8000 children shoes last week in Rotterdam bij Plant een Olijfboom. After Christmas we will organize this in Amsterdam. 

There was a lot of coverage of this event, including on international media. As a group we discussed that one of our aims is that people in Gaza know they are not forgotten, so this international display is important.

https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/in-pictures-netherlands-event-honours-8000-gaza-children-killed-by-israel-16327128

https://www.newarab.com/features/rotterdam-mourns-gazas-children-baby-shoes-never-worn

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1F0r0sO3xM/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

?? The Christmas postcards are spread in Christmas markets, at events/protests/vigils they appear in Christmas trees and in different towns cardwritig sessions took place. Here a nice complation of one of them.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1DFnFMIRuL/?igshid=ZTcxMWMzOWQ1OA==

?? Tomorrow at Christmas eve we organize another candle event. With of course the banners.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Htq93oqjK/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

?? The first poster is ready!! More to follow.

https://theyhavenames.net/post-cards-and-posters/

?? More postcards (without Christmas theme) will also follow soon.

?? The media workers / journalists banner is now finally nearly ready. And we started with a banner for West Bank victims to show that this is really not about Hamas and also that it did not start at Oct 7.  After this we can continue with health workers, children, artists …

?? The stories on the website are not progressing very quickly. I also found the explanation for this. The situation is so ridiculously urgent that it feels more needed to go out on the streets, to write, to organize. Also people in and from Gaza cannot talk much about deceased loves ones. They have the urgent matter of keeping the living ones alive. The website has no hurry. But we owe the victims a place on it. We will continue. Even if it is slowly. And when ceasefire finally comes we can put more focus on this.

?? I started organizing backups of all our work.

I personally find it hard sometimes to keep going. There is so much suffering and horror and you feel so helpless. And than I think of the people in Gaza. How are they supposed to keep going if we already give up. So let’s continue to do these small things: Making clear that they are not numbers.

Thank you all for your donations today.
And also for the comments you left.
Your feedback is what keeps us going. And gives us the confirmation that the effort we put into it is valuable.

It also comes with a responsibility. A responsibility to continue. So we will continue to find and upload stories to our website and will continue to create banners. Also today we started discussing the plan to make postcards that can be handed out to bypassers during commemorations. 

I like to share with you some feedback we received yesterday:

“We get a lot of response to your banners. This week it was used for the first time in Utrecht (three times now) and it is really noticable how many response there is, specifically from bypassers. I think it is also a way for people to start a conversation - especially at sit-ins - as the people who are carrying the banners are often asked about it and people say how important it is. And many people thank us for that. And yesterday during the sit-in often people had the slogan 'They have names, they had dreams'.”

• Another update for the project:
  If all goes well today will be the first day that all banners till now can be seen.
  - At Amsterdam CS this evening
  - At the election debate about Palestine in The Hague. National TV will be present with a film crew there!
  - And also planning to be present at the Red March in Amsterdam on Saturday and i just heard a film crew is also available then to make us a nice compilation to share! ❤️
   
• Also I updated the website with new pictures and stories. 20 of them. I had to cry. 4 of them are family members of Dr Moueen that he lost recently. https://theyhavenames.net/how-to-find/
   
• Three more banners have been designed and are available for printing on the website and will be ordered tonight. The 14th banner will be a bit different as we have 200 names left. We want to show in this banner that this is only the start and many more are murdered by now.
   
• We will now start with designing poster size names & stories.

Feel free to use and / or share any information you find useful on the website.
 

Thanks you all once again for making this possible.

Some other big days for the campaign:

• The website went live! See www.theyhavenames.net
• 9 more banners have been designed and printed. More names, more faces more dreams to remember.
• The banners are now also available from the website in high resolution printable format, so everybody can order one for use (see ’How to find’).
• The banners have already been used in numerous locations and events across the country and we had people asking for orders from France, Germany and Ireland.
• Also our Instagram page went live and is also amazingly followed. Thanks all for that!
• And last but not least: we are receiving more donations. This means more banners to be printed and spread. More people to be remembered. Unfortunately the list keeps growing so we are not done yet ?? There are now also ideas of projecting the banners. Will keep you all posted. 
  
   

Wow, what a day! The banners arrived today (a day delay because of the storm). Immediately three actions took place with the banner & the names:

• In Dublin, where 24 people are taking shifts to read all names from the list for 12hours outside US embassy with the 1st banner in the background
• During a sit in in Rotterdam Central Station, demanding ceasefire now
• And in Amsterdam at the daily protest in from of Amterdam Central station.

We received MANY messages of people who want to get a banner or use it in activities!! 

And we got an instagram account. 

Tomorrow hopefully more banners are designed and then printed. And I will work on getting the website up…

Dear sponsors,

About time for an update!

• I like to thank all teams - the translation team, the content team, the design team for the amazing work done in these crazy and tough circumstances, while mourning lost family members or while encountering settler attacks during the work.
• The first banner is sent to the printer and will be ready on Thursday. Please see the amazing result, showing respect to the loved ones.
• Every day from 19-21 pm Dr Moueen is in front of Amsterdam Central station. Everybody is welcome with flags and voices. As of Thursday (inshalla) the first banner will be visilble there.
• We will print 17 more banners to cover all the names of the victims we have so far plus stories. Unfortunately the killing didn't stop yet…
• The first banner will also be printed in Ireland!! And presented in a rally there.
• And in the mean time a refugee camp is bombed….

The team has worked whole night to have something to distract ourselves from the darkness that fell over Gaza and the flames that set Gaza and our hearts on fire. 
We nearly finished translation of all the names yet a team in Malaysia ‘beat’ us and released just now. It is lovely to feel the connection worldwide. We will soon post a link where the list can be found. 

Dear all,

I had wanted to write an update tonight.

Wanted to tell you that we nearly reached our goal of 2000 euro in one day! 

That we will start printing a big banner and if we have more money will print more and spread as much as possible.

That we are working on the translation of the more than 7000 names of people who got killed, from Arabic to English. That this is devastating to do. But that we do it with a team of 30 translators from all over the world, with different ages, backgrounds, believes, but all a love for Palestine.

That we found so many lovely pictures of children that had dreams. And their stories. Children that should still live today. And that we will publish them all on the banners.

But then I received a voice message from Dr Moueen Al Borsh, the initiator of this project. In tears. ‘They are bombing Gaza now. They are bombing heavily. They cut all communication. Please you can do anything. Anything for my people.’

What more can I say.