Fund Drones for Appalachia Flood Victim Recovery

Hello, 

It's been some time since we have connected and we wanted to thank you for your incredible support at a critical time. We also hope you are doing well. We are thrilled to share exciting updates from community members that you have helped make possible.

When we received the call for emergency support from community members being flooded in an extreme weather disaster - specifically environmental leader Maria Gunnoe -  Seeding Sovereignty was able to respond with drones and related supplies. When the floods hit, an emergency response was essential to find missing people and to raise awareness of emergency response disaster needs. Systemic responses were too slow and local community members stepped up to take care of their own. We shared earlier what the drones and related supplies meant in terms of safety, real time information, and raising awareness on local news.

Since that time, the drones that you supported continue to be used in Kenticky and West Virginia by young people who have found their calling and agency to speak out and fight for the healing of their lands and communitues. One example is the incredible drone footage of mountain ranges that are inaccessible to reach and too vast to understand without an aerial view. The drones we sent to Kentucky is being used to fight a $500 million dollar, 1400-bed prison complex on a former surface mine in the heart of Roxana, Kentucky. The proposed site had already taken fifty years to heal from extraction and devastation. Appalachia wants to also heal, and move forward, as it's "imperative to recognize that true progress lies not in the expansion of the carceral state, but in the cultivation of its inherent strength. With its magestic mountains, rich musical heritage, and vibrant cultural tapestry, Appalachia becons toward a future derfined by resilience, compassion, and solidatity."

But that isn't all. Mountaintop mining and decades of extraction for fossil fuels left Appalachia's communities barren and economies broken. There was a food desert midst flooding lands. One local farmer had stepped forward with a solution. And a need. Together we were also able to answer another call from Maria Gunnoe! Thank you for supportig us sending the needed farm tool - a large plow - that was picked up locally and put to work to grow more food to distribute for free to community members in need. 

Like the drones that served an emergency need, this plow contines to be put to work months later and into another growing season to offer care and nutricious food for families. Recovery from disasters is long, not linear, hard and ongoing - requiring partnership, relationship, trust and a steadfast commitment to show up and celebrate new leaders and their vision of how to help their communities.

Thank you for joining us on this journey.

Links:

• Drones sent by Seeding Sovereignty Making a Difference!