Dear Members of the Harvard Community:

The Harvard Club of Boston and the Harvard Club of Ireland are so pleased to announce the next installment of our Allyship Series.

Following our successful events focusing on Anti Racism (October) and the LGBTQ+ community (November), in February 2021 we will host a virtual event which will be a case study in Allyship focusing on Indigenous Peoples. This event will tell the incredible story of the relationship between the people of Ireland and the Indigenous Peoples of North America—especially the Choctaw, Navajo, Hopi, and now Iroquois people. We would like to invite Clubs and SIG’s to model allyship by co-sponsoring this event. Please let us know if you are interested in so doing.

This amazing giving circle was started by a gift of $173 from the Choctaw people to the Irish during the Potato Famine in the mid 1800s. That life sustaining gift is now being paid forward to the Navajo and Hopi people during their special challenges in the face of COVID-19. Click on this link to see how this was reported earlier this year by the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/world/coronavirus-ireland-native-american-tribes.html

This video also does a great job of telling this heartwarming story https://www.today.com/video/returning-an-old-favor-irish-communities-help-native-americans-during-covid-93674565978

Please support

The Navajo and Hopi relief fund profiled in these stories is the creation of Harvard Alumni Association Elected Director and enrolled Navajo Tribal Member, Ethel Billie Branch AB '01 JD/MPP '08, who will be taking part in our February allyship event.

While our event will take place in February, the crisis that is inspiring thousands of acts of allyship by the Irish people is coming to a head over the next few weeks. Knowing this, we would like to respectfully ask for your support now, in addition to your co-sponsorship in February. The Covid19 pandemic has had a particularly devastating impact on the Navajo and Hopi people. According to the CDC, Americans living in rural areas like the Navajo and Hopi reservations are three times as likely to die from Covid-19 as those living in urban centers. Please watch this 3 minute video from Ethel’s team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylh1s2sjSCE&feature=youtu.be

In this holiday season of giving thanks we are asking our Harvard alumni communities to come together and support Ethel’s work for the Navajo and Hopi people in their hour of need. Here are a couple of ways you can help:

1. Share this email with your membership database

2. Post this story with the Donate link on your club website

3. Encourage your members to adopt this cause as the act of giving if the club has not yet identified a charity or non profit it is supporting this year

4. Personally draw attention to the Relief Fund’s Giving Tuesday campaign through social media.

To make a donation to the Navajo & Hopi Families Covid-19 Relief Fund and to find out more details about their plight please click here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/xjgrfa-navajo-amp-hopi-families-covid19-relief-fund

According to Ethel “It will be devastating to our communities if we cannot continue providing food to our people during this fraught time. With the recent surge in cases on Navajo Nation in the last 14 days, it is not a safe time for our people to be searching for food in order to stay home and remain COVID-free. We ask that everyone look into their hearts and pledge what they are able to in order to help our communities through this continued crisis.”

The Relief Fund seeks to raise enough fund to carry Navajo and Hopi families through this second wave, through the cold and flu season, and to the end of the COVID pandemic in these communities.

• For $100, you will help a family of four by providing them with 2 weeks’ worth of food and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• For as little as $10, you can help feed a family of 4 for an entire day

We feel it is also important to say we are very conscious that there are very different degrees and intensities of difficult circumstances in countries across regions and across the world. Some of these circumstances are Covid-19 related and some are not. We completely understand if participation in the form of donations is neither feasible nor desirable for your community right now. In any event we just wanted to state we are not placing any obligation on people to donate whatsoever. Whatever your local circumstances and your ability to give at this time, we would be grateful if your Club or SIG were to co-sponsor the event in February and support us by having as many of your members participate as possible.

Thank you for reading this. We wish you and your families a safe and happy holiday season.

Warmly,

Ethel Billie Branch

AB '01 JD/MPP '08, Elected Director Harvard Alumni Association

Alice Hill

AB ‘81 PhD ‘91, Past President Harvard Alumni Association

Moana Palelei HoChing

ALB ’15, President Harvard Alumni for Oceania (HAO)

Emily Van Dyke

AB '03 MD/MPH '09, President Native American Alumni of Harvard University and Harvard Club of Seattle Board

Hannah Kilgore

M. Ed ’10, President Harvard Club of Ireland

Bob Manson

MPA ‘04, Club & SIG Director Harvard Alumni Association

Matthew Hegarty

AB ‘82, President Harvard Club of Boston