Help a Gazan boy be free to fly his own balloon

Hello, kind soul,

This fundraiser has been created to evacuate a lovely Palestinian family from Gaza. Currently the cost of an exit visa from Palestine to Egypt is $7000 per adult and $3000 per child. The family consists of two adults and their infant son, so they need $17,000 plus the $522 that GoFundMe takes (~ 3%) out of the total raised and another $475 for the cost of fund transfer by Western Union. Therefore we are asking for $18,000, all of which will go directly to pay a travel company for the exit visas and escort across the Egyptian border, but nothing else. The family will pay their own transport to the border and all other costs related to the evacuation.

And now let me tell you about my amazing friend and colleague, Hana’a Mansour, who is one of the most intelligent and inspiring people I've ever known. I’m a US English teacher, and for the past six years, I’ve had the honour of working with Hana'a and her lovely students in Gaza through the Hands Up Project. Her way of inspiring her students to learn, to grow up, and to dream up a wonderful future, is remarkable. Hana'a and her husband Ayman have a four-month-old son who was born under this terrible genocide, knowing nothing but bombs and starvation. Ayman, Hana'a and Ghassan have so much to offer the world. Thanks for reading this post and especially for making a donation to open the way for this precious family to live free from want and fear. 100% of your generous donation will be given to the family to leave and seek safety outside Gaza. You can read about the family in their own words below.

From the family:

We're Ayman, Hanaa, and our little hero "Ghassan", who is 4 months old now. We're from Gaza and we truly and urgently need your help! We are a very simple family. I’m Ayman, a pharmacist, and my wife, Hana’a, is an English language teacher. Hana'a is so interested in linking her students with volunteers and students from different countries through the Hands Up Project.

We were living normally and were trying to welcome our baby in the best way in October 2023, but our plans were shockingly ruined and he was welcomed in the worst way ever! Instead of listening to soft calm music as normal babies do, he hears fearfully loud bombs all the time! Rather than sleeping in his cosy warm bed, he has been displaced and moved often to sleep in different uncomfortable places. His basic needs, like diapers or milk, are rarely available.

We were trying to tolerate all of that, even though it was extremely hard, till that dark moment occurred. We woke up at 6:15 am to find ourselves unable to see or breathe. We felt paralysed! A huge part of our lovely home had been savagely damaged. My wife and my son, are you still alive?!? Hana'a started looking for our baby by touching because she couldn't see a thing! Finally, she grabbed him and held him in her shaking arms. I could barely find an exit. We left the house while part of it was still on fire. We got out covered with dust, ashes and huge pain all over! "Ghassan couldn't breathe!", his mum shouted.

I thought, “What did you do, my little boy, to the world to get treated in that way?" His mum took him to the nearest hospital to get help. I write the most painful and heartbreaking details as best as my language can help me. However, all of the words I know cannot be enough to describe our miserable feelings on that day. Adding insult to our multiple injuries, that wasn't the only time that we survived an airstrike. We’ve been very close to death many times!

We're struggling and resisting as the best we can but these have been 150 days of living under war! 150 days of experiencing death, fear, displacement, starvation, contagious diseases and all types of torture. Our bodies are tired, our patience is exhausted, and our souls are torn out!

We don't know for how long we can still keep ourselves alive. We don't know if we can still survive or not! So we're asking for your help and generosity to be able to get out of Gaza and move to the nearest safe place in Egypt.

As you can notice in our photos, the sea view is our favourite!

We're both fond of it! Not too many photos are included with the three of us because only views of destruction have been available since Ghassan's birth. I always dream of sitting on a chair next to my lovely wife again, while the breeze of the sea flies the balloon, but this time Ghassan will be holding that balloon. Each night I have the same dream and each day I wake up in the same nightmare!

We believe that there are still good people with pure souls who are willing to help making people's simple dreams come true!