Donate to support Alaa’s Recovery

Hello friends,

My name is Alaa, from Gaza, Palestine. My life and my family’s life have been shaped by war, loss, and survival. Since 2008, we have lived through six wars, and while we survived, we lost our home, our security, and the chance to live a peaceful life that we have been aspiring to and working hard for.

In every war, we carried fear as our daily companion. I still remember being 12 years old during the 2008 war, terrified every time we were told to evacuate, sharing our last food with neighbours, and watching my parents try to protect us even when they had nothing themselves. In 2012, I will never forget my father’s trembling body when he came home after witnessing a man torn to pieces before his eyes. I will never forget all of us sleeping on the ground in a small room that we thought was the safest one in our home.

Despite the horror, I pushed myself to succeed in school, determined to give my family a better future. In 2014, during one of the deadliest wars, I became one of the top ten students in Palestine. I still remember my mother’s tears of joy that day that relieved a bit of my family's fears. Later, I was awarded the Chevening Scholarship to study in the UK, and I graduated with distinction from the University of East Anglia, carrying the dream of building a better life for my family and going back to support them and carry my knowledge to my work and community, where I worked in schooling visually impaired children and humanitarian action.

But everything changed again in October 2023. I left Gaza for a short conference in Jordan, not knowing it would be the last time I saw my home. War broke out, and I was stranded outside, powerless while my family endured the unthinkable. They were displaced again and again, moving from one unsafe place to another while I was in Egypt, just trying to think of where they were and how to get them to safety. Then, one day, I received the news I had dreaded most, the house where they were sheltering was bombed. My sisters were trapped under rubble. Heba, my youngest sister, suffered a severe pelvic injury and struggled to walk and needed a wheelchair. Aya was struck in the head and still suffers from trauma and hair loss. My mother’s voice haunts me when she cried on the phone, “I am so sorry I couldn’t move the wall that fell on your little sisters.”

My dad in the news looking for my sisters and brother after what happened.

Weeks later, my father’s small shop — his only source of income and the fruit of 30 years of hard work — was reduced to rubble. For the first time in my life, I heard him cry, saying, “My entire life’s effort was destroyed in 30 seconds.” That same night, I collapsed in Cairo from panic and had to be hospitalised.

Then came December 15th — the day everything was finally gone. Our home, our memories, our safe space, flattened to the ground. I can still picture my cosy room, our dining table filled with laughter, my family photos — all turned to dust in a single night.

This was the last photo we were together in our beloved house.

My family spent months displaced in hospitals, where there was no food, no space, and no medicine. My little brother and father slept on the streets in the freezing cold. With donations from friends and debts we still owe, we finally managed to evacuate them to Egypt in February 2024. When I saw them again, I couldn’t stop crying; it was a miracle to hug them alive.

But the suffering did not end. We lost everything. My sisters need urgent treatment, my brother lost an entire school year, and we barely manage to pay rent. We live in constant fear about our future, without the right to work or build stability in Egypt.

And then, tragedy struck us again. On 3rd May 2025, my beloved father passed away from a sudden stress-induced stroke. He carried the weight of all our suffering until his heart could no longer bear it. Losing him has broken us completely, emotionally and financially.

Now, I am left with my grieving mother, my sisters, and my little brother, who is still in secondary education. I am raising this fund to help my family recover and have some dignity as we face an uncertain future.

Every contribution will bring us hope. Please, if you can, help us survive this dark chapter of our lives.

Thank you