Meet Antoinette (Noor) K

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Antoinette (Noor) K. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Antoinette (Noor), thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I definitely get my work ethic from both of my parents and my grandparents. My father is a first generation Palestinian American and I grew up seeing him start his own auto shop business along with his brother, mother, and father, and saw how you can build something from scratch if you put in the effort. My grandmother left Palestine in 1948 to escape the Nakba (meaning “catastrophe”, when Palestinians were expelled from their homes), learned Spanish in Argentina, and then English in America. My Palestinian grandfather was born in Haiti and later joined the United States army to become a citizen. My mother was always busy when I was growing up. She cooked, clean, worked at my father’s business, had a daycare business, and raised the kids. My grandparents on my mother’s side both had harsh upbringings and married young yet made a great life for themselves. My grandfather worked several side jobs and as an educator in the local school system, and my grandmother supported him, had her own daycare business, and raised the kids. I try to work just as hard as they did so I can achieve great things in my life as well.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

In January 2024, I founded Among the Rubble Collective, which is a grassroots fundraising collective to help those in besieged Gaza, Palestine. We have group members in America, Canada, and Gaza. Using a rotating “Top 2” strategy, each of our group members identifies who is most in need based on criteria such as medical issues, lack of recent donations, emergency housing issues, and other factors. We distribute the funds as they come in through a fundraiser. Our main fundraiser here is titled “Noor’s Among the Rubble Collective General Funds Distribution” and can be found here: https://gogetfunding.com/noors-among-the-rubble-collective-general-funds-distribution/
Our most recent project titled “Do Something Good Today” is a rotating mutual aid project in which our on the ground volunteer Mohammed identifies the projects which are needed the most, and we fundraise for that specific project, and then move on to the next. So far, we have provided two water trucks, blanket distribution, food parcel distribution, shoe distribution, provided a tent for large family, and our most recent project was a takiya (hot food kitchen) distribution. Our project can be found here: https://chuffed.org/project/113685-do-something-good-today
We recently partnered with Aqsa Cola, the only Muslim owned Cola company in the US. Every purchase helps support impoverished communities in Palestine and abroad. We also partner with Vigils for Humanity, bringing attention to the children who are no longer with us in Palestine and how you can take action to help.
We can be found on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/amongtherubblecollective

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think that tenacity, resilience, and the ability to recognize my areas of opportunity have been the most impactful in my journey.
I believe that tenacity and resilience are definitely something that come with time, challenges, failures, and the ability to learn from these areas without beating yourself up.
Being humble and teachable definitely helps with being able to recognize your areas of opportunity.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Among the Rubble Collective is looking for volunteers to help with our various projects and community outreach both in the local community and online. We need folks who can volunteer their time by participating in teams to build support for individual family fundraisers and/or reach out to companies who can support us with partnerships. In the local communities we are looking for those who can create fundraising events to support Among the Rubble and educate people in their communities about the plight our fellow humans are in. We are also trying to build a mental health support system for those who are experiencing deep trauma due to the conditions in Gaza. We are in need of mental health experts and those who have dealt with trauma. You can connect with us by commenting on this Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGgFpu2uZRF/ or e-mailing our executive administrator Kristin at amongtherubblecollective@gmail.com.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amongtherubblecollective/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559212280396

Image Credits

Photo of Noor by Photographer Roger Harmon. All other photos are property of Among the Rubble Collective.