Get Baby Hassoun and Family out of Gaza

We are the Bayya family, the children of Hussam and Hanan, and we live in Gaza City. Mohammed, 32, worked as a social worker before 7/10, but now works in a supermarket, Rafiq, 30, worked as a fashion designer and business owner, and now works in Greece to support refugees by producing needed clothing items and teaching people sewing. Saleh, 29, was also a social worker as well as a photographer, Reham, and her husband Abdalla, are 27 and have masters degrees in business and have worked with non-profits supporting hospitals, Reem, 24 has a bachelors in business and worked in marketing for nonprofits, Akraam, 18, was studying at the university before the war started, but now works whenever he can in the supermarket. Our pride and joy is our nephew Hassoun, age 3, a sweet and joyful boy pictured above.

The last 6 months have been excruciating, as our friends, family, and neighbors’ homes have been systematically destroyed. We have lost countless loved ones, and the grief and terror, coupled with the loss of our livelihoods, has brought us to our knees. We have done our best to support our community during this time, even supporting distributions of money and food to those who need it most. Our homes have been destroyed, and we are staying in the only unbombed room of our sister’s home, living in constant daily fear for our lives. This is no condition for anyone to be living in, but for baby Hassoun, we fear for him every day, and cannot expose him to this risk and trauma any longer.

Unfortunately, we are not able to leave the country without paying steep ‘coordination fees’ to Egyptian authorities who regulate the Rafah border crossing in the south of the Gaza strip, as high as $5,000-$10,000/person. Our top priority is the safety of Baby Hassoun and his parents, but we are trying to get as many of our family members out as possible, out of the daily threat on our lives, from this place with no food, medical care, or functioning infrastructure. All we seek is a place to live in peace, where we can work, serve our community, and raise our family. It is a universal human calling to provide for your loved ones, and protect them. We are a well educated and hard working family, and we have always done so, even in extremely trying conditions, until now. It is a painful truth to come to terms with the reality that we cannot get access to the resources that we need to keep our family alive - we have done everything we can over the last 6 months to avoid getting to this point, but we now must ask for help. We are immensely grateful for any support.

Note - I'm Raviv, I live in the US, and I'm a good friend of Rafiq and the Bayya family. I'm hosting this fundraiser because GoFundMe requires a bank account in the US. Our first fundraising goal is just enough to get Hassoun and his parents out, but if we are able to reach this, we will increase the goal to support other family members as well. 100% of the funds will be sent by Western Union to Hussam, as soon as we reach the fundraising goal. I understand how hard it is to trust these types of fundraisers right now, please feel free to contact me thru the GoFundMe platform with any questions or concerns. Thank you doing what’s right during this difficult time.