Hi, my name is Andreea and I am fundraising on behalf of Hala

My name is Hala Alagha I'm 19 years old I used to dream of many things simple but beautiful, I wanted to study nutrition at the university because I graduated from high school in 2023 with a grade of 94.9% in the scientific stream. I also loved cooking and sweets, so much I always imagined myself opening a small sweets shop one day filling it with cakes and chocolate , and the smell of fresh pastries. My dreams were bright and so close to becoming real, but in one moment the war came and everything was destroyed.

I live with my family we are six and with my grandmother we are seven. My father worked as a trader, he had a small warehouse where he distributed chips and goods to supermarkets. This warehouse, his only source of income, was stolen and burned . My mother is an English teacher her school was partially destroyed and most of the teachers and students became martyrs. Schools in Gaza are no longer schools, they turned into shelters for displaced families since the war began she has not been able to work.

The bombing doesn't stop, it is everywhere, in every city,every street, there is no safe place in Gaza. No matter what the occupation claims, every day we hear the sound of explosions, every night the sky burns.

My brother Yasser was supposed to start his final year in high school, but the war stole even that. He tries to study online but there is no electricity, no internet, no chance. My sister Jood is so talented in drawing, she lost all her drawings because of the war. My little sister Yosra should be going to school like other girls her age, but instead she spends her days helping us collect water and firewood. Some of her classmates became martyrs and others had to leave.

My grandmother can't walk and her medicine has been missing since the beginning of the war, she takes weak replacements that only make her weaker. We already lost my grandfather in this war and I can't imagine losing more

We have been displaced more than eight times moving from Khan , to Mawasi, to Deir al Balah, and then back to the north during a short truce, but the war came back even stronger. My grandfather’s house was completely destroyed and now we are trapped in the north under siege. They tell us to go south but where do we go, when we do not even have a tent to cover us.

I can't understand how life can change in just one moment we once lived simply but beautifully with love hope and a future, and suddenly it was all taken away. How can a person lose their home, their income, their country, their dreams, all in a single moment? How can everything turn into nothing?

I was once a girl with dreams dreams bright like the sky, dreams of university , of sweets, of building a future with my own hands. Now I stand between strength and pain, holding on to hope, even in sorrow my only dream now is to save my family and keep them alive!

Thank you for giving us a chance

Hala