14-year old Tala Turkmani can no longer walk

https://youtu.be/Jhexpi1nhaQ?si=oU8Q2HetgU7Z5Y1DWatch Tala´s story!

Hello, my name is Rita Balbo, and I am a Danish citizen currently living in the Netherlands. For the past 11 months, I have witnessed with deep sorrow and horror the relentless destruction and bombardment in Gaza. Tens of thousands of civilians have been brutally killed in the ongoing attacks by the IDF and Israel.

I have been contacted by Safaa Al-Turkmani. Safaa is alone with her 4 children: Ashraf (16), Tala (14), Ikram (10) and little Adam (4). Her husband, Amer Hamsa Ak-Turkmani, was taken from the family shortly after the events of Oct. 7th, while he was working in Beersheba to support the family. He is currently imprisoned without charge in Israel under administrative detention.

Contact and communication with Safaa’s husband has been lost, even through the Red Crescent. It has been impossible for Safaa to get any information about him and how he is now. Is he alive or dead? They do not know, and there is no one to support this family.

During one of the family’s many displacements Safaa’s 14-year old daughter, Tala Al-Turkmani, was injured in Nuseirat during one of the bombings that took place in June 2024. Tala sustained injuries that has left her paralysed in her legs. This has caused a loss of control over her body’s elimination functions, and there is a growing fear that her condition may worsen due to the high risk of infection spreading throughout her body. As a serious complication to her already serious condition, Tala has also developed the dangerous Guillain–Barré syndrome. We fear that it might target her respiratory system. The family is still trapped in Nuseirat, where they are living in a tent.

The funds that we are trying to get together are crucial in helping Safaa, Tala and her 3 siblings to survive until they can leave Gaza and get her the urgent medical care in UAE that she desperately needs. UAE have already confirmed that they are ready to receive her and WHO has her on the urgent list of medical evacuees. What the family is now waiting for is for Israel to approve her medical evacuation. Until then, the family needs food, water and basic necessities to survive, including pain medication for Tala. The little resources that manage to enter Gaza is very limited and extremely expensive. Your support is therefore invaluable. Please share this fundraiser and donate whatever you can to make a difference.

See her video, shared with permission: https://youtu.be/Jhexpi1nhaQ?si=oU8Q2HetgU7Z5Y1D

In this video, received today, September 12th, Tala´s mother Safaa is narrating what she is enduring while trying to get medication for Tala: https://youtube.com/shorts/us6kqEQwG-w?si=IrD5v4qJRLfJz8LA