My dear friends,

Your messages, full of kindness and friendship, and the valuable support you have offered in less than twenty-four hours since my message last night have shown how much possibility can be created through our connection, friendship, and solidarity.

I feel encouraged, and I am proud of your friendship.

Alongside my thanks, I wanted to offer a brief report on what has been achieved so far in this very short period of less than a day. I had set a five-day period for completing this collective effort, ending at the close of 24 Tir.

In total, close to 2,000 Australian dollars has been deposited into my PayPal and Australian bank accounts, and a little over ten million tomans into the account announced in Iran.

I have also received several letters addressed to dear Leila through Instagram and Facebook messages, as well as by email. They are full of love, kindness, hope, and friendship, and they will certainly reach the person for whom they were written.

I even received a message from two old friends who kindly wrote that they would like to provide more sustained and effective assistance with the ongoing costs of living and treatment for our dear and valued compatriot. I will try to put them in direct contact with the recipient of this support, in the hope that this can create a lasting positive change in her life and the lives of those she loves, and turn a limited contribution into something dependable.

Some friends contributed more than one hundred dollars, or more than one million tomans inside Iran, and I am deeply grateful to them for their valuable and generous support. But I also have a special gratitude for those large hearts that contributed amounts such as five dollars or twenty thousand tomans. Many of us, when we think of helping, imagine that participation requires a large sum. The truth is that when you stand on the receiving side of help, you feel with your whole being how valuable small contributions are—not only because, when made by many people, they become substantial, but because the feeling that tens or hundreds of people are accompanying us in a shared purpose is often many times more valuable than the final amount collected.

Life is the drawing of a picture, not the adding up of figures, and I thank all of you for leaving me such a beautiful image with which to enter my forty-fourth year.

I will keep this collective support project open for another four days. If there is a significant change in what we have achieved, I will again share the good news with you.

I love you,
Aydin Areta