Meet the Abed Family. They are a family of 5 who escaped Gaza in the spring of 2024. The Abeds are a husband and wife, Mahmoud and Alaa, and their 2 beautiful little girls, Little Jihan and Wateen. They live as refugees in a single room with Alaa’s mother, Mama Jihan.

Alaa, is the strongest person I know. I wish I could tell you everything she has endured, but out of privacy & safety concerns, I will not. I can assure you, it would break most people.

And yet, she continues to fight for her family, working long hours in the service industry in their new home and wishing for a better life for her two precious girls.

As refugees, they struggle daily to make ends meet. Alaa, Mahmoud, and Mama Jihan often skip meals in order to have enough money for rent and to feed Little Jihan (Jojo) and Wateen (Tin). Jojo is starting to think about school and has learned some English; she can great me with an enthusiastic “Hello!” when we video chat.

I first met Alaa online in Dec. 2023. We video chatted many times over the next two months. She was very sad and scared and had a hard time telling me about her situation. I did not initially send any money and was very wary and guarded, as I tend to be. I was interested in learning firsthand what was going on in Gaza and she was able to show me and tell me about daily life. I vetted her information through photos, videos, and other sources I had in Gaza. I have lived and traveled abroad for several years doing humanitarian aid work, and I already had a strong grasp of the situation from my time as a student of the Jewish scholar and advocate, Dr. Joseph Ginat, in his Peace Studies Institute at the University of Oklahoma.

The night of the Super Bowl 2024, Alaa video chatted me because she was so terrified and didn’t know what to do. As I watched Usher shuffle his feet like magic around Allegiant Stadium, I could hear the drone and the bombs in the background while Alaa’s terrified face as she clutched Baby Jihan tightly, was just visible on my phone screen. It was then that I decided to ask people in my immediate circle to help them. Without these people, I do not think this family would be alive and intact today.

Alaa and Mahmoud had separated from her family in early December so Mahmoud could receive treatment in Rafah for an injury sustained in October. Mahmoud’s family were killed a couple of weeks into the invasion of Gaza when the apartment building next to theirs was bombed. Alaa was sitting across from her mother-in-law, with the rest of Mahmoud’s family in the same room, when the wall behind her MIL exploded. The last thing Alaa remembers is grabbing Baby Jihan and running. She saw her MIL’s detached head as she ran from the apartment. Mahmoud took some shrapnel in his leg as he ran. The treatment he was receiving in Rafah was to control the infection which was making it hard for him to stand and walk.

By February, Mahmoud’s leg was no longer responding to the antibiotics and debridement. He had become very sick and doctors told him that without amputation, he would die.

I contacted doctors at the hospital independently to verify that surgery was needed and also because I constantly verify everything Alaa tells me. I completely trust her now, but I always want to make sure that she isn’t being manipulated by someone else or her information has fallen into the wrong hands. I have never discovered anything that gives me concern.

A doctor at the hospital where Mahmoud was sent for an amputation consultation was able to confirm that Mahmoud was a patient and surgery was necessary. If Alaa reads this, it will be the first time that she learns that I did this. My circle of friends and I paid for Mahmoud to have his right leg amputated below the knee in March 2024. We are so thankful that he responded well to the surgery. Unfortunately, we have had trouble providing him with a wheelchair (they had to sell the used one we initially acquired) and his mobility has been limited for the past two years. This, along with everything else, has contributed to his depression.

Besides helping them meet their daily needs, I am hoping to raise enough money through this GoFundMe to pay for Mahmoud to have a wheelchair. A prosthetic leg would be even better. If you or any of your connections can help achieve that goal, please let me know!

Alaa and Mahmoud and Baby Jihan had moved to Deir Al-Balah shortly before Mahmoud’s surgery. There, Alaa took care of a group of 3 very young street orphans as if they were her own. She also used what little money they had to make suckers to sell in the market to make a meager profit.

Alaa and Mahmoud had lost contact with Alaa’s family, but knew they were in the area around Al-Shifa hospital. While Mahmoud was recovering from surgery, Alaa was unaware that the rest of her family was being killed in the raid on Al-Shifa hospital. Her parents, older brother and his wife, older sister, younger brother, and younger sister were all sheltering there with many other civilians. After the raid on the hospital, only her mother Jihan was still alive. She had been injured, but fortunately kind people were able to dig her out of rubble and eventually find Alaa. The first sign Alaa had that something was wrong was when she received a phone call from a stranger asking if she was Alaa and had family sheltering at Al-Shifa. That call was when the rest of her world crumbled. She has a hard time thinking about her father and siblings; the trauma is too great. Fortunately, my friends and I were able to help her mother reunite with Alaa and Mahmoud, at which point my friends and I decided we needed to try to help them evacuate. Some very generous donors provided that for Alaa and her family at a reduced price due to Mahmoud and Mama Jihan’s medical conditions.

Mama Jihan has mostly recovered physically and now works long hours alongside Alaa in their new location.

Besides hunger, they also face housing insecurity, which is something your donations can help improve. We cannot let these survivors and these precious little girls live on the street.

This family is so sweet and kind. They are always thinking of others and they have worked so hard to survive. If we exceed our goals, I know they will want to share the excess with others trying to survive in Gaza. We communicate with several families there who desperately need assistance. Alaa is always thinking of them and feels a duty to help others when she can. This is one of the main things we talk about. How can we help other people? I have never met someone so selfless. She wants to survive so she can do good in this world.

For the cost of one meal in a restaurant, we could collectively change their lives and give this sweet, hard-working family the chance at peace and healing that they need and deserve.

If you’ve made it this far, I thank you for your kind heart and genuine concern for other people. I am just trying to balance out the horrific things that have been done with my tax dollars to innocent people who were just living their lives and had no role in the awful atrocities that preceded this current reality.

Will you please help us?

(I am a mom and proud American whose family has fought honorably in every major American conflict since WWI. My great uncles defeated Nazis in WWII. One even received a Silver Star for his success at saving his platoon from an imminent attack. He never talked about his service and hated war. We only discovered the paperwork after he had died. I honor his legacy of peace and kindness with this fundraiser and I hope you will, too.)