Help Haya and her family flee Gaza

“Knowing I am not forgotten makes me feel stronger… I am still going because of the things I learnt from this (On Earth Peace) community.”

–Haya Saleh

Please help On Earth Peace raise money for Haya Saleh, a 23-year-old passionate activist and peace worker, beloved teacher, aspiring student, kind friend, and loving sister from Gaza, Palestine, whose life is currently seriously endangered after losing everything that she has known as “home” these past few months. Haya is a Nonviolence trainer who works with an international team, and we dearly hope to help her and her family leave Gaza to stay alive. Since 2021, Haya has been an Organizing Intern and then Nonviolence Fellow with On Earth Peace.

This GoFundMe has been set up to arrange the travel for Haya, her older sister Bisan (26) who has graduated from medical school and was an intern at Al Shifa Hospital until it was destroyed, and her younger brother Mustafa (16)*. We are raising money to get the three siblings and their mother Sahar across the border at Rafah. The money will be used for border crossing fees; ground travel, lodging and expenses in Egypt; travel to the US or Canada, and settlement expenses.

Haya and her siblings, Mustafa and Bisan, have lived their whole lives under Israel’s occupation of Gaza. Since mid-October of 2023, Haya has shared updates of the increasing suffering she and her family endure: lack of food, water and medicine, bombs falling over their heads and destroying their family homes, losing close family and friends, electricity and power cut-offs, disruptions to internet and signal connections, running through shootings for their lives. Haya, one of the most infectiously positive individuals we know, shared with us on the day she and her family were forcibly marched from the North to the middle of Gaza that “what I’ve seen in the past week only managed to knock any sort of faith out of my heart.”

A soldier pointed his gun on me and screamed “lower your head, you lowlife!” We were walking for over 25 kilometers on foot with our hands in the air…I don’t know if I even should mention the horrors I lived and seen. But I am definitely defeated from the soul.

This current aggression has not stopped Haya in her pursuit of a better world. Haya is currently in the process of securing a scholarship to gain a Masters degree in Conflict Resolution and Peace Building. Haya has also led multiple international training programs and Nonviolence workshops, with youth in Gaza and the United States and adults from around the world. This work is core to Haya’s beliefs and values and her strong ability to connect with people from all walks of life empowering them to make a difference in their life and others' lives.

Please share Haya’s story and donate. Any amount you might contribute is deeply appreciated and will help Haya and her family leave Gaza. All funds will be used directly in the means described above. We will be providing updates on Haya, Sahar, Bisan, and Mustafa here on this page. For questions or concerns please contact us at [email redacted].

For those donating from the US: Please note that the goal amount is in CAD, since Azza Musleh (Haya's aunt) will be withdrawing funds into her canadian bank account. Please keep the exchange rate in mind when donating -- $10 CAD is $7.50 USD

Thank you so much for any support!