Providing for Palestinian orphans in honour of Nasim Zubairi

Our darling Ami passed away on the 21st March 2024 on the 11th day of Ramadan 1445 AH. She is survived by her children, daughter-in-law and grand children who loved her and who will miss her terribly. For those that knew her, Ami was a diminutive woman in stature but a giant when it came to the strength that resonated from within her. This was despite suffering immensely in life from a very young age. She was hugely inspirational to us and many of those around her.

Ami was 12 years old when the British-imposed Partition of India occurred in 1947. The way in which the Partition was enacted killed approximately 1 million people, including Ami's own family, leaving her an orphan. She was the only survivor of an attack on her and her family (consisting of her parents, all four of her brothers and sisters, and her grandmother) who were all living in New Delhi. More details of Ami's story around the partition can be found here: https://www.1947partitionarchive.org/story/7398

Ami's strength after suffering such unspeakable horror at such a young age meant she developed a lifelong attachment to her Creator. She expressed a desired wish that she leave this world in the month of Ramadan (considered auspicious in the Islamic faith), which is when three of her cousins who she was close to and grew up with also passed away. She also wished never be a burden on anyone - which she could never have been - with regards to long-term illness. Both of these wishes were granted by her Creator, Allah.

A dear colleague and friend informed me that the day Ami passed away was what Palestinians commemorated as Mothers Day which also seems especially poignant.

An orphan from a young age, and not being able to complete her own education beyond secondary school, Ami had a great affinity with orphans and the most vulnerable of children, as well as the importance of education. We, as her children, knew we had to do well at school, with the pressure coming not from Daddy (who ironically was a schoolteacher) but from Ami who would continually tell us how lucky we were to be getting an education. We were constantly reminded that this was not the reality for so many children around the world. This resonated from her own experience as an orphan who was not able to continue her own schooling beyond a certain point.

In the middle of their life, Ami and Daddy started fostering children who mainly came to the U.K. as child refugees from places such as Afghanistan, the Balkans, and Somalia. These children had experienced and had fallen victim to some of the worst conflicts globally in the 1990s and early 2000s. Ami, in particular, had a close affinity with them all, and always encouraged them to prioritise their schooling above all else. Her words to us and to them were "your education is the one thing no-one can take away from you provided you work hard." Our lovely brother Rustem, who she began fostering when he was 14, came to live with us as an unaccompanied refugee from Kosovo in 2000. Their bond was so strong, and Rustem continued to be a source of great comfort to Ami when Daddy passed away in 2012 right up until when Ami left this world recently.

When we look at the images from the genocide occurring in Palestine today, we see the commonalities between what is happening there to Ami's own story. This includes stories of children whose education and childhood have been brutally cut short simply because they are dehumanised as the "other." The uprooting of people from their homes, the enforced ethnic cleansing and the structural violence contingent on religion/ ethnicity occurred in 1947 with the Partition and deprived Ami of the happy loving childhood she craved, and so thoroughly deserved. Similarly the Nakba - which started in 1948 and continues to this day - is underlied by the systematic brutalisation of Palestinians because of who they are through the enforced dispossession and violence towards them.

The current phase of the genocide in Palestine has created 17,000 orphans. We are hoping to raise money in Ami's name to go a small way in supporting these and other children in continuing their education which is a sector often deprioritised in conflict and humanitarian settings. Education has been vital in contributing to the resilience of Palestinians in the face of the brutal occupation they have been forced to endure for the last 76 years. For Palestinians, education is what allows their history to be kept alive, and for their voices and stories to be carried from one generation to the next. It also allows for the sustenance of an educated society who will one day be at the forefront of building a just and equal Palestinian state free from their occupiers who dehumanise and brutalise them.

We are raising money in Ami's name for Palestinian children which will support them in their immediate day-to-day needs and - in the medium to long-term - allow them to recommence their education. The money raised through this GoFundMe appeal will be donated equally between the following organisations:

- Friends of Birzeit University (Fobzu)

- The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's Fund

- Global Relief Trust

Please donate what you can, and share if possible. Thank you.

Soombul, Lubna, Arif, Asma and Rustem in memory of our Ami, Nasim Fatima Zubairi (1935 - 2024).