Help a mother and her children from Gaza who lost everything

Hello, My name is Samar Islam and I am living in France. This fundraiser is for a friend's family. Their story:

My name is Ekhlas, I’m 29 years old, a mother of three innocent children: Mohammad (9), Rukan (6), and my baby girl Lulu, who is only 7 months old.

This cruel war has stolen everything from us. Our home, once filled with love, is now a pile of rubble. My small tailoring shop, which I worked so hard to build and which was our only source of income, was burned down along with all my dreams. All that remains is death, fear, and hunger.

Today my children live among the ruins. They wake up to the sound of planes and explosions, and to the sight of bodies and destruction all around them. They have never known safety, nor the meaning of childhood. Even playing has become a distant dream.

We live in a place unfit for life — filled with insects, pollution, no clean water, and not enough food. My children are exhausted. My youngest, Lulu, desperately needs milk, diapers, and care. The first sound she ever heard in this world was the sound of bombing. It breaks my heart. I look into her eyes and ask myself: will she have a future? Will she survive?

Every day is a battle to stay alive. Fear and hunger are consuming us slowly, and famine is already at our doorstep. My children deserve a better life than this. They deserve a safe roof, healthy food, and a school to go to. It has been two years now with no school and no education.

It breaks me when my children ask me: “When will we go back home?” I have no answer for them. Rukan just wants to play again with the little bike he left behind. Mohammad wonders why he must sleep on the ground when he once had a bed in our house. But they don’t know yet that nothing is left for us. We were told that our entire neighborhood was demolished — every building, every street — nothing remains but ashes.

I write to you with a heavy heart, begging you to be the light in this darkness. Any donation — even the smallest — could save my children’s lives and give them back a piece of their stolen childhood. And if you cannot donate, please share our story, so that maybe it reaches another heart.

Please, don’t leave us alone in this devastation. You are our only hope to hold on to life.

With pain… and with hope,

Ekhlas