Hi! I'm Valentina López and I’m re-starting this campaign to help my amazing friend Sondos and her family in Gaza. I will receive and transfer any donations to her directly from my bank account here in the UK.

Please know that any contribution (even if it’s just sharing this campaign with others) makes a difference. If you are able to, please keep showing up for Palestine and people like Sondos in any way you can. Every second we spend helping others makes our hearts a little fuller.

If you’d like to learn more about Sondos and her story, you can do so on Instagram:

@sondos_iyad_aljuaidi

@support.sondoss.family

I will now share her message:

Hello world,

My name is Sondos, I am 22 years old. I was studying information Systems Engineering at Al-Aqsa University. I had big dreams for a bright future. But those dreams were shattered under the weight of the aggression on Gaza. The war did not only take lives and homes, it also destroyed my university, the place I saw as a beacon of my ambitions. Even if the war ends, I will not be able to complete my education because my university was destroyed.

Today, I stand on the ruins of those dreams, looking at what remains of memories and halls that were once full of life and knowledge. Even if the war stops, its effects will remain a witness to our deprivation of our right to education, to hope, to life.

We are a family of 8. Please help us survive since the beginning of the war. We have been living in constant terror. Every day is a battle for survival, with the constant threat of death looming like a dark cloud. We wake up every morning not knowing if we will see the sunset, hear our children laugh again, or if we will have to say goodbye to another loved one. These are my little brothers, just children caught in the nightmare of war. They are innocent souls, caught in the fire of a world they do not understand. Their features have changed so much and their hair seems to be falling out from fear, hunger and bombing. They are children who do not even know their age but understand pain.

My brothers are living in an unimaginable situation. They only need our love and compassion to donate what you can. Only you can help these children and you can draw a future for them like all the children in the world and make sure they deserve it.

(Ahmed 14 years old; Qais 10 years old; Helen 7 years old).

As my mother suffers from chronic Chron’s disease, our suffering increases day by day. Her health is very weak, and her illness requires continuous medical care and special medications. However, in light of this destruction and harsh conditions, we cannot provide her with the necessary injections and treatments, as their cost is too high for our means.

Seeing your mother suffering before your eyes without being able to help her is an indescribable feeling that weighs on the heart and increases the bitterness of life. I wish I could be her support, to provide her with what she needs to live with the least amount of pain, but the war has left us with nothing but helplessness and disappointment.

I appeal to your merciful hearts to extend a helping hand to us, as you may be the reason for saving a soul exhausted by illness, and hearts burdened by pain.

For the sake of humanity, please help us with whatever you can. My brother Amir is a 24-year-old young man who has always dreamed of travelling to get his master’s degree and get a job abroad. He recently finished his bachelor’s degree in interior design and was unable to practice his passion for life. His graduation ceremony from his university was on October 6, a day before the war, and then he woke up on the morning of October 7 to the sound of explosions, missiles, shelling and destruction. He did not know that October 6 was the last day of his beautiful life and that he could not practice his passion for life. This war destroyed his dream of travelling to get his master’s degree and his ambitions. Amir was not just a person who cared about his specialisation in interior design, but he was a person who truly loved it. His designs reflect his ambitious spirit and passion. And the attention to the fine details that turned each project into a masterpiece.

He believed that design is not just adding things to a place, but creating an experience that a person lives as soon as he enters the place, so that he feels like he is at home, in a place that reflects his taste, dreams and comfort. Amir is not just a talented interior designer, he is an inspiring person, showing us how passion for the field can turn dreams into reality, and how determination and perseverance make the difference in anything we want to achieve.

My brother Mohammed is a young man of 21 years, who carried in his heart big dreams and noble ambitions. He was studying physical therapy, and sought to become a therapist who would relieve the pain of others and plant hope in their hearts. But the aggression on Gaza left nothing unsaid, even my brother’s beautiful dream.

His university was destroyed and with it his dreams were shattered. He was no longer able to complete his studies, and now he finds himself selling cold water in the shattered streets, just to be able to bring us food, for our family who has no source of income.

Seeing a young man of this age, full of ambition and will, forced to give up his dreams and stand up to the cruelty of life with the simplest means, is an indescribable breaking. But despite everything, Mohammed has not lost his humanity, and he still carries hope, perhaps in compassionate hearts that light up this pitch darkness.

We lived in a simple house, but it was full of love and warmth. Its walls held our memories, our laughter, and even our tears. But the war left us with nothing, we lost our home in an instant, and we began to search for a refuge in a strange and cruel world.

We were displaced again and again, carrying our few belongings on our shoulders, and our memories in our hearts. Every time we lost shelter, we lost a part of ourselves. Survival became a daily battle, between fear of the future and grief for what was lost.

But we did not lose hope. We believe that life is worth living, and that we can build a new beginning despite everything. We need a hand to reach out to us, to help us stand up again. Not just to rebuild a house, but to rebuild our lives, and revive our dreams.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to each and every one of you who has taken the time to read my story and offer your support during this time. My journey began in Gaza, where I, like so many others, dreamed of a future full of hope and promise. However, the horrors of the ongoing war have shattered those dreams, leaving me and my family devastated and consumed by deep despair. Every bit of help, no matter how small, means so much to us. It’s not just financial support, it’s a message that we are not alone, and that there is still some compassion and humanity in the world.

With your help, we can begin to rebuild our lives from the rubble that remains.

We just need your love and compassion to donate what you can. We trust you and your support.

Sincerely, Sondos and family <3

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