As Thanksgiving approached and I began to reflect on the things I am grateful for, I found myself thinking about this past summer that I spent volunteering for the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition (TASSC). TASSC is an organization that provides invaluable support to torture survivors in the D.C. area and works to abolish torture worldwide.

On a regular day at the office I would be surrounded by elite runners from Ethiopia whose family members were killed for opposing the ruling party (who were then written about in the Washington Post), journalists from Eritrea who were jailed for writing about government corruption and professors from Cameroon who decided they would rather be tortured than spread government propaganda in their classrooms. They are models of bravery, resilience and most importantly, humanity; getting to know them has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

Next Sunday, Dec. 4, TASSC is hosting its first annual Run For Strength, a 5k fun run and 1-mile walk in Wheaton Regional Park to raise awareness for the large community of torture survivors in the D.C area and to ensure that the organization will be able to continue doing its amazing work. At the run, you’ll be able to meet and run with TASSC staff, supporters and survivors, including the elite Ethiopian runners (see if you can beat them). Festivities, refreshments, music and a silent auction will immediately follow the run. If you can’t make it and still want to support TASSC, you can sign up as a virtual runner or donate directly on the website.

TASSC provides its survivors with an astounding array of free services, including psychological counseling, social services, employment preparation and legal support as the survivors seek asylum in the U.S.

But that is not all that TASSC does. When TASSC members flee to the U.S., they leave behind their homes, friends and often family as well. The community that exists at TASSC is a critical component of the survivors’ journey to overcome the trauma of their pasts and rebuild their lives. TASSC has provided this support to over 7,000 survivors since its founding in 1998 and continues to treat over 300 survivors each year.

Thanksgiving is a day marked by looking back and reflecting on what we are grateful for, but it’s not an activity we are able to do for long. Within hours of the holiday ending, we immediately resume our normal mode of looking forwards towards what is coming next. Even so, people are often struck by how little time it takes for malls to be filled with jingle bells and menorahs. It can seem silly to look so far forward so quickly.

But I think the opposite. In fact, instead of looking just two months forward to the winter holidays, I think we should look twelve months forward to next Thanksgiving. After spending a day reflecting on what we are grateful for, the next step is to start working to ensure those same things will be around next year, both for us and for those around us.

On Thanksgiving, one of the things I am most thankful for is hope. Hope that I count on things getting better, not just in this country but in the world as well. One of the reasons the last few months has been so hard is that this hope has been severely rattled. But following Thanksgiving, the question is not just how to stay hopeful, but how to keep others hopeful as well, how to ensure that next Thanksgiving, as we sit back and think about all the good in our lives, hope is the first on the list.

I have never come across an organization that inspires more hope than TASSC does in the people it touches, whether they are the torture survivors themselves or outsiders learning about the work the organization does.

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for our hope. But once the holiday ends, we must realize that if we want to keep it, we need to support the people that provide it. Consider starting with a run.

The link to register can be found here.