My name is Heba Shallouf, from Gaza, currently me and ailing elderly mother of 70 years are displaced in the South of the Gaza Strip- Rafah.
Prior to the War, I was an animation filmmaker and a drama teacher for children, living in Gaza City, living my normal life with my family, looking after my elderly mother with severe heath conditions, in our humble home, with a hope and dream for a better future and for my mother to recover from her ailments .
Today, our lives are shattered beyond description, we have been displaced multiple times to escape the fury of bomb shelling’s, me and my 70-year-old mother are currently displaced in Rafah.
We need your help to get out of Gaza: this is our desperate plea.
In the plight of humanity, we need your help to escape this horrific war, more so I need your help to support me take my ailing mother out of Gaza, for her to access her urgent medical needs.
My mother is nearly 70 years old and lives in a dreadful state of terror, anxiety, sadness and panic attacks that we cannot control, not to mention the physical illness that she suffers from without having access to any basic medical services. My mother is diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety, and war-related post-traumatic stress disorder. She also suffers from spinal stenosis. She requires decompression surgery starting with pain relief with physiotherapy, pain management and spinal injections, then surgery if the treatment was not successful. Currently, my mother has no access to any medical care or pain killers or anti-depressants due to the war on Gaza and health system in Gaza being severely undermined because of the assault on its infrastructure, compounded by shortages of vital supplies and medical professionals.
We are reaching out to raise funds, that will allow us to escape from these disastrous conditions. The goal is to move to a safer place and away from imminent danger. This costs USD $ 5000 per person, since leaving Gaza has been made extremely difficult. Your support will help us to safety and will also contribute to help us rebuild our home after the end of the war. As we are going through great financial hardship due to this unjust war, I have lost all hope, I do not have a source of income and I do not have savings. We used to live in dignity before this war, now with the inflation of the prices and lack of all the basics we spent all what we had. Whatever used to cost one dollar, now it cost ten dollars! In my desperate measure, I am reaching out for your assistance.
Along with human beings, animals continue to silently suffer in the war. As an enthusiastic animal lover, I am doing what I can to care for street cats and dogs. My strong love for animals and my inability to continue feeding them and treat them hurts me so much. The situation is getting worse by the day, and I am unable to provide food and medicine to them. It is sad for me to know that these animals have nothing to eat and not even in the rubbish. They are souls and deserve life and have nothing to do with wars and conflicts, and now I cannot help them or myself with this war.
Life in war is unbearable especially with electricity cuts and water scarcity and fuel and gas cuts. Imagine yourself sitting with your family in total darkness for months and hearing nothing but the constant sound of missiles, and the constant sound of surveillance aircrafts that we are about to drive us crazy. The constant fear!
And here I write to you, hoping to reach out to your conscience and your noble humanity to help us, I have nothing but prayers and hope! We are living a disaster in every sense of the word, health disaster, psychological, moral, financial and humanitarian disaster.
If I receive your kind help, I will be grateful and I thank you for it. I pray to God to help you for doing the right thing always.
May God bless you and your country!
GoFundMe only works in certain countries. Hence this fundraiser is managed by Mervat in UK, who will ensure that 100% of the funds received (following the GoFundMe transaction fee) support our future.