Aid Emad’s Family: Home and Dreams Shattered

Hello, my name is Tariq Saba, and I live in Corona, California. I am starting this fundraiser to support my friend Emad Sayegh and his family in Gaza, Palestine. All the funds raised here will be transferred directly to them to help their efforts. Your support will make a real difference!

About us:

We are a small Christian family from Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Palestine. Emad the father is 58 years old, Nermeen the mother is 44 years old, Wafa the son is 22 years old, Iyad the son is 21 years old, Seham the daughter is 19 years old and finally Khader the son is 18 years old. Most of us are university students and Khader is a high school student. On October 1, 2023, we were preparing to start our new academic year. We are diligent and excellent students in our studies, and some of us are top of our class at university. We were thinking about nothing but our education, our future, our family and our simple life.

On October 7, 2023, the war on Gaza began and we felt that time had stopped. Our work, our life and our studies all stopped suddenly. For a whole week, on a daily basis, we were evacuating from one place to another because we were receiving phone calls to evacuate the place, we were in. That week, we evacuated more than 10 times back and forth but there was no safe place to go.

On October 13, 2023, we decided to take refuge in the church, St. Porphyrius Church, after realizing that there was no other place to go, and we said to ourselves: “God is our savior, let us go to his place and be under his protection.” Many other families thought the same thing and they all came to the church as a last resort for us to take shelter and preserve our lives as much as possible, knowing that it was a safe place.

The impact of the war on us:

On October 19, 2023, one of the church buildings where we were staying was targeted by an Israeli airstrike during the war, and there were about a hundred people inside, and living in that moment was one of the most difficult things to bear, in a moment the floor rose and fell from side to side and then the entire building fell on its residents, the sounds were terrifying and the fog and dust from the bombing covered the place.

Everyone was screaming for help and worried about their family members but no one could see a way out. We all rushed to save those who were alive and inside that building and it didn't stop there.

On July 29, 2024, the room where we sleep and where we and our family and some of our friends are all the time was bombed with a tank shell that caused a lot of damage and a lot of dust. We couldn't breathe or escape or do anything at that time and thank God that nothing bad happened to us at that time but we couldn't sleep that night because of the terror we felt, the only place we thought was safe wasn't.

During this war we couldn't reach our house in the Zeitoun neighborhood because it was a closed military zone and we faced many problems in getting good water, good food or medicine.

Our Life Now:

Let's move on to the present moment, after 517 days, 517 days of hell that we never expected to live or experience. The city of Gaza was completely destroyed; the streets, schools, hospitals, electricity networks, communication networks and all means of life.

We lost our home and almost everything we owned during this war, and our home in the Zeitoun neighborhood was completely destroyed, along with the neighborhood and all the homes there. The house we spent more than $400,000 on, our dream home the Sayegh family, is now hidden, just a pile of stones. My father lost his factory that was next to the house, he lost it all. There was equipment in it worth $150,000. Also, Wafa, who had started to stand on his feet and establish his own project and import some shoes with international brands from abroad to sell them and collect money to expand his project, had imported about 500 pairs of shoes, but he lost them all in the war. Thus, he lost his entire capital of $20,000 and does not know what to do or where to start. He is trying to complete his master’s studies now in business administration, but we are facing difficulty in providing the money for the study due to the high prices and the donors’ cessation of giving, as it costs about $5,000. The rest of the brothers are studying at the university, as Iyad is studying engineering and seham is studying pharmacy, and they have about 4 years left. It costs them almost $8,000 for both of them.

We are very sad to say that we were and still are struggling to survive until this moment, as the high prices are another topic. Imagine that the price of a kilo of gas has reached $60, and also a liter of gasoline or diesel has exceeded $30 per liter, and they are necessary for cooking and lighting. There is also a sharp increase in the prices of food, basic necessities of life, and transportation. Unfortunately, there is no one to support us from the governments or cover these expenses for us, and this is one of the most difficult challenges we face at the present time.

We always pray for the hope that peace will prevail one day in our country and in the whole world.

Your donation will help us rebuild our destroyed home and rebuild our factory, which was a primary source of income for us, and also buy our basic needs for life under these difficult circumstances And also to complete our university studies.

Thank you all for your time

Every minute counts and every donation can make a difference for us.

We thank you for your generous and kind donations. Your support will restore hope to us and with your help we will be able to start over and rebuild our lives again and stand on our feet again in our country.

Thank you again,

Emad and family