Nawal Abuhamdeh of St. Louis recently posted about a bracelet-making fundraiser that said her 10-year-old daughter's Girl Scout troop has started raising money for emergency humanitarian relief for children in Gaza. She did not expect her organization's leadership to threaten her with legal action for doing that.
For the past four years, Abu Hamde has led the annual cookie sale to raise funds for the troop's activities. But as this year's sale approached, she became reluctant.
She has witnessed the destruction of her parents' homeland of Palestine since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, one of the most destructive military operations in recent history, has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health. Among them are approximately 12,000 children. A United Nations agency warned this week that child deaths could rise sharply in the Palestinian territories due to “incredible shortages of food and safe water.” Hunger and infectious diseases are widespread.
The girls in the Abu Hamdeh unit, who come from diverse backgrounds including Somali, Indian, Syrian, Jordanian and Palestinian, have been emotionally affected by the reports.
The videos that are out there are traumatic. Abuhamdeh watched as an inconsolable Palestinian father gathered the body parts of his murdered children into shopping bags. A doctor tried to save his 16-year-old niece's life by amputating her leg on the dining table without anesthesia. The crying four-year-old tried to get up and look for his parents, but they were killed and his leg was amputated.
“I'm grieving. We're all grieving. I literally couldn't muster the energy to sell cookies,” Abuhamde said.
She asked the girls if they had any ideas for community service projects instead. They proposed making and selling beaded bracelets to raise money for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. Abuhamde recalled seeing the Girl Scouts organization highlight the efforts of other troops to raise money for war victims in Ukraine. It seemed like a good way to channel their sadness into positive action.
She shared a post on social media advertising that she would be selling bracelets for $5 and $10, with all proceeds going to PCRF. Shortly after, she received an email from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. The group said its members cannot raise money on behalf of “partisan politics” and must “remain neutral.”
The organization asked her to immediately remove all references to Girl Scouts from all communications and social posts about the girls' work. Abuhamdeh responded by explaining how important this fundraiser is for the girls and how critical the situation in Gaza is for children. She assured them that the force was not making political statements.
“We condemn the loss of innocent lives, regardless of religion or ethnicity,” Abuhamde said.
She asked leaders how selling their bracelets was different from Girl Scouts' fundraising efforts for Ukraine. She received a lengthy response in the official language, informing her that the activity did not follow “appropriate policies, procedures, and approval processes as outlined in volunteer and leader training documents.”
The last sentence shocked her greatly. “Unfortunately, if this direct violation of the organization's governing documents and policies continues, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri and Girl Scouts of the USA will have no choice but to work with our attorneys to remediate this situation. ” and to protect the organization's intellectual property and other rights. ”
“I'm starting to get a little scared. I'm not going to lie,” she said. “I wondered what they were going to do to me.”
For years, she has tried to give them the opportunities she has missed out on. The troops form a sisterhood and have grown up together since kindergarten.
Abuhamde reached out to other parents. They decided that the organization's values were not in line with what they were trying to teach their daughters.
Ms. Abuhamde sent an email to the Girl Scouts expressing her disappointment and heartbreak and explaining that she wanted the Girl Scout troop to be disbanded from the organization. They sent her instructions on how to leave.
When I asked Kelly Daleen, Membership and Marketing Director for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri, why this project was different from other war victim fundraisers, she said the leader had to get prior approval. I wrote that I couldn't do it.
Mr Abuhamde said he wished he had said so at the outset and called for a moratorium on operations until the necessary approvals were obtained. Rather, they made her troops feel unworthy and vilified in moments of deep sadness and weakness.
“What did we do wrong?” the girls asked her.
Abuhamde gets emotional when talking about her decision to leave an organization that teaches girls to “make the world a better place.”
At the end of the day, she said, it was the Girl Scouts' way of deciding to stand up for what they believed in.
