- M
- K
Dear friends,
My name is Basma Dabbagh and I am supporting my cousin Yasmin and her husband Wesam Tarazi to launch this fundraiser. Yasmin is the daughter of my cousin Salwa, and her grandfather Samir Dabbagh is my father's brother. The donations will help Yasmin and her family start a new life. I am starting the fundraiser on their behalf as I am in Canada and can access this platform, I will send the funds to them once they are in a safe country.
Please read the story of their suffering and join in supporting them to rebuild their lives again:
We are a small Christian family, Wesam, a 38-year-old father, Yasmin, a 30-year-old mother, Merwan, a 6-year-old older son and , Faris, a 2-year-old son. On the morning of October 7, 2023, we woke up to the voice of the war, and the days that followed, we lived the most difficult moments of our lives inside our home, that once was calm and peaceful home near the beach of Gaza city. Electricity, water and all means of life were cut accompanied with the terrifying sounds of airstrikes and gunfire in our neighborhood, forced us to evacuate our home to go to a more safe place, at least that what we thought, however after evacuating multiple times and multiple homes, we were convinced that no place is safe so we had to evacuate one more time and take refuge in the church of St. Porphyrios in the old city of Gaza and we stayed inside one of the church's buildings with another 100 persons who also took the church as a shelter.
On October 19th, 2023, a day that none of us would forget as long as we lived, my older son, Merwan, was taking a shower when we heard a very close explosion sound so we had to get him out fast and to dress him in the main hall to be together where we felt more safe, within 3 minutes, a second explosion happened and, in a blink of an eye, the building we were in collapsed, the church's building that we were staying in was targeted by an airstrike, we were crying for help from under the rubble, my older son, Merwan, was looking for his grandparents but he couldn't find them, he asked me "where is Teta (grandma), I can't see her, where is Sido (grandpa)?". Unfortunately, Merwan's grandparents (Wesam's father, Merwan, and mother, Nahid) were killed under the rubble of the building that night alongside with 16 other people, 7 of which were children.
A couple of days later we received the news of the destruction of our home that we've built together for us and for our children, this house was funded through a loan of 70,000$ and we still pay its premiums despite the absence of the house.
Several days later, the Israeli tanks advanced towards the church's neighborhood and unfortunately the area where my car was parked was also targeted, the car that I bought two years ago at a cost of 16,000$ was destroyed.
You can click on this link to see our lives before and after this war.:
After losing everything we own, our beloved ones, our house, and our car, we took the decision to leave Gaza to rebuild our lives in a more safe and peaceful place. We have received approval for tourist visa applications to Australia and we are planning to leave when a safe passage from Gaza city to Rafah is available or there is a ceasefire. However, the expenses to leave are not in hand and it is enormous.
The required estimated costs we are trying to fundraise, per person, include:
2400$ - flight ticket from Egypt to Australia, in addition to the living expenses in Australia for a couple of months because we will not be permitted to work under the tourist visa which is estimated at 1,000$ per week.
Thank you for your support and donations. With your help we will be able to live safely and peacefully.
Yasmin and Wesam