Dinah Ortiz Needs Us To Give Back

Dinah Ortiz has given many years of her life to the harm reduction community, and after a harrowing year full of health scares and loss, capped off now with a terrifying car accident, she desperately needs us to give back. Two days ago, Dinah was in this severe car accident. She is in pain, but wary about receiving treatment because she is unsure if she can afford the costs. She needs to repair her car, but most of that cost will also fall on her.

Dinah spent eleven years working for the Bronx Defenders, protecting the rights of pregnant and parenting people who used drugs. She has used that experience in her work on North Carolina Survivors Union 's Narcofeminism Storyshare reproductive justice module, playing a foundational role in defining a new concept of reproductive harm reduction. She is a leadership team member of Urban Survivors Union, the national drug users union, and has spoken on countless panels and presentations educating the public on the needs of women of color who use drugs, specifically on these reproductive harm reduction matters. Her social media presence is inspirational to a whole new generation of organizers advocating against the racism and classism of family separation.

Dinah has always cared fiercely about each and every member of her community. Now she needs us to care about her. She has never asked for funds from her community before, but she has no choice but to do so now. She has gone into contracting work, and her income has been wildly unstable. After a year in which her son was incarcerated, and she suffered a cancer scare, she discovered that because of a series of bureaucratic mishaps, she is unable to continue to receive Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

In Dinah's own words:

"These past few months have been excruciating. I have been working as an independent consultant but as we all know, unless you’re a big name you don’t make a lot of money doing it. I’ve been on unemployment for the past year and when my bank account was closed due to several fraudulent activities I needed to update my direct deposit online with unemployment. It turns out that their site has been down for over 3 months to make any updates so I haven’t been able to receive any unemployment.

"My son bought me a car knowing I needed it to pick up my grandkids every other week. I’ve literally only had the car for a week when on my way back from dropping my grandkids off in New Jersey it began to rain and there was a truck in front of me that rammed his brakes, and before I knew it I crashed right into him. I didn’t have enough time to brake, he did it so fast, and with the rain it was worse. My car was totaled while he just lost a couple tail lights. I had to pay the tow with the little money I had left over and now I'm left in a position where I have to pay for the car to get fixed. I thought I had full coverage and I only have liability. And again, I'm left with no money to survive until unemployment updates their site.

"I have always worked for everything I needed and never been in a position in the last 15 years where i had to start a fundraiser to survive. This is absolutely embarrassing for me but the time has come where I need your help. Thank you in advance for any little you can give.

"In solidarity,

Dinah"