Moving Hope Forward

With the devastation of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and neighboring areas, we have learned that these communities are in need now more than ever. Winter has fallen—snow, rain, and floods continue to impact their lands.

After speaking with the women who are holding these communities up, it is clear that the lack of resources available has united these women to rise and join together. They continue to support the elderly, women, children, and disabled by providing limited services and are requesting assistance as they deal with contaminated water, electrical/power outages, and people sleeping out in the snow.

The number of those unhoused continues to grow, with an increase in lack of medical facilities and transportation. Volunteers left for the holidays, and these communities have been forgotten and are no longer in the news or media.

There have been reports of having no doctors or medical assistance available—issues with wounds healing, skin rashes, norovirus, and more persist. The herbalist community has risen up to care for their communities.

Now, we are asking for your help.
Donate
Your support makes a difference

Current Needs:

Our focus is on providing urgent, necessary support for those impacted by Hurricane Helene
ASAP!
Points of contact (POCs) are listed below with their specific needs.
*
01/06/2025 - Update
URGENT requests for warmth and shelter!
*
How Can You Support our Boots-on-the-Ground efforts?
  • Support these communities by sending critical supplies directly to them (mailing addresses below).
  • Volunteer your time—if you can travel to North Carolina or surrounding areas in your own RV or camper, we need on-the-ground help to aid with recovery!
  • Lend a Hand: Help clear debris, remove metal and trash, and assist with community restoring.
  • Provide Expertise: If you have medical, survival, or gardening skills, your help and knowledge is especially needed.
  • Deliver Supplies: Bring essential items like generators, warm clothing, hygiene supplies, and/or spiritual tools and medicine directly to those in need.

 

Essential Needs for the Community:
  • Seeds: For growing herbs and food.
  • Spirit Medicine: Shawls, drums, rattles, feathers, cedar, tobacco, sage /smudge, copal, corn meal, etc.
  • Medicines: Herbal and over-the-counter, to address ailments such as infections, breathing issues, skin rashes, wounds not healing, norovirus, and emotional sorrow or grief.

Additional Support Needed:
  • Donations are needed to support ongoing relief efforts, including purchasing generators, firewood, and purified water (for drinking and bathing), as well as covering bills, food, and other essential needs.
  • Backpacks, warm clothing, supplies for children, water filtration supplies, non-perishable foods, medical kits, antiseptic bathing wipes, and transportation assistance.
Last updated: 01/06/2025 @11:30pm PST

Below are the POCs, along with their specific needs and shipping addresses—please reach out to TWR directly for more information on how you can support.

We will continue to add to and update these lists as their need's change.

Renee Cozier-Prince 
reneeprinceherbalist@gmail.com

Donate:
Fundraiser by Renee Prince: Together Rebuild Our Community After Hurricane Helene

Mailing address:

216 Hatcher

Cir #101, Asheville, NC 28806

Needs:

  • Medicinal and Spiritual Supplies

  • Medicines for respiratory illnesses and skin rashes (URGENT)

  • Tobacco

  • Cedar (URGENT)

  • Smudge

  • Spiritual supplies

  • Essential Items and Equipment

  • Backpacks (URGENT)

  • Sleeping cots

  • Several generators

  • Tables and chairs (plastic, metal, or non-absorbent)

  • Shelving or storage solutions

  • Agricultural and Planting Supplies

  • Seeds for herbs and food (all kinds), including nettle, linden tree, holly tree.

Volunteer Support and Physical Labor:

  • Volunteers to remove metal, trash, and debris (needed for at least a year)

  • Help with septic conditions

  • Assistance with community building and gathering efforts

  • Physical help for digging, planting, and gardening

Medical Care and Hygiene Supplies:

  • Doctors or medical care (No doctors in the area)

  • Wound care for injuries that won’t heal

  • Consumable hygiene supplies

  • Supplies for cleaning others (including energy cleansing)

Last updated: 01/06/2025 @11:30pm PST

Lori Collins-Jenkins
sisterofmotherearth@gmail.com


 

Mailing address:

Mars Landing Gallery | Attn: Satellite Studios

37 Library Street, Mars Hill, NC 28754

Needs:

  • Medicinal and Nutritional Supplies

  • Milky oats

  • Oat straw

  • Emergen-C immunity packs

  • Digestion remedies

  • Anti-inflammatory remedies

  • Zinc

  • Lysine

  • Neti pots

  • Salt for neti pots

  • Cough drops

  • Honey sticks

  • Ginger chews

  • Vitamin C chews

  • Vitamin D

  • Elderberries

  • Magnesium flakes

  • Propolis

  • Menthol crystals

  • Respiratory remedies

  • Fire Cider

  • Grief support

  • PTSD support

  • Women's menstrual needs

  • UTI support

  • Children's remedies

  • Sleep aids

  • First aid remedies

  • Pain relief remedies

  • Hygiene and Skincare Supplies

  • Shea butter

  • Cocoa butter

  • Olive oil

  • Beeswax

  • Warmth and Emergency Supplies

  • Propane

  • Indoor-safe propane heaters

  • Warm wool socks

  • Hot Hands

  • Candles (lots, for families who could be/are losing power for a couple of days)

  • Backpacks

Monetary Support:

  • Donations ($)

  • Gift cards (Lowes/Home Depot)

Medical Care and Hygiene Supplies:

  • Doctors or medical care (No doctors in the area)

  • Help with septic conditions

  • Wound care for injuries that won’t heal

Last updated: 01/06/2025 @11:30pm PST

A message from The Council:

As our world, our nation and our lives are experiencing a Dark Night of our Collective Soul...Hope, Faith, and Love are the gifts, strengths and tools of the Spirit that will Light the Way through it...for this darkness cannot be avoided. It is the evidence of our Ancestral prophecies, the stories of Wise Elders, the Medicine of our Grandmothers and the Shift of an Old Paradigm as we give Birth to an ever-evolving humanity.
As we are Thrust into this Dark Night, we often fall deeply and suddenly upon our knees as the Earth crumbles beneath us...our dreams, hopes and lives destroyed in an instant....and we are plunged into the Darkness of suffering, despair, fear, and on the precipice of hopelessness.
This is when we need to Hold onto Hope...this is when we must reach up and out for a flicker of Light...a hand reaching out to help...a heart overflowing with Compassion and Understanding...that comes from Those Who have gone before us...for they know the way through despair...they know what the heart and spirit, the mind and body needs to endure, persevere, support and nurture Hope, while strengthening and sustaining Faith...
As Elders, and for those of us who have journeyed through our own personal Dark Night and emerged...the greatest gift that we can offer...is the same gift we were given to "Move Our Hope Forward.”
This is the medicine, the intent of Service for our Turtle Women Rising Council and the intent of our "Moving Hope Forward" Project. Our efforts for this project are directed to the Healers, the Sisterhood of teachers, Earth warriors and community members...many affected by the hurricanes that have caused a geologic disaster and severe destruction to the Ancestral lands, homes and communities in Western North Carolina. We have spoken with these women and have dedicated our Hearts' prayer to reach out and help in whatever ways we can.
We have chosen to offer resources, connections, prayers, ceremonies, tools and most of all...Love, in the form of Deep, Compassionate Understanding, Amplification of their prayers, voices, and spirits to help the people they serve...to be a Beacon of Light and Love, to support their way through this trauma With a Beloved Community supporting them in the darkest time.
This is the journey we all can support—to reinforce and amplify our Collective Compassion and Fierce Love.
We have provided a list of the many items they need NOW and a way for you to be another Light in this literal and metaphoric Dark Night for the people of North Carolina.
As a Sisterhood, this is what our hearts long to be and our Collective Community prays to be...This is the way in which our Humanity will survive, feel supported and shielded from the hopelessness that fear, and darkness provokes.
With our deepest gratitude for supporting this project, for giving what you can and for lighting the way with Love.
Pilamayaye, aloh, aho...