My name is Sylvia and I live in the UK. I'm raising funds on behalf of my friend Shady, his wife Sahar, and their 7 children in Gaza. Shady's family has endured unimaginable hardship - fleeing massacre after massacre, losing their home, and now facing famine and homelessness whilst having just welcomed their newborn baby Yahya into the world. I've created this fundraiser to help them survive. Every donation that I raise will be sent on to Shady and Sahar, so they can buy food, shelter materials, and be prepared for bringing their newborn baby back to their tent.

Please read their story below - and if you can, help give this family a chance to live.

After surviving war, we now face starvation – please help us stay alive

Before October 7th, our lives were full of hope. My wife, our six children, and I were living peacefully in our modest home, dreaming of a better future. But everything changed in an instant.

We lived in a town near the Israeli border. When the bombings began, we had no time to prepare. As we fled, I looked back at our home and knew—I would never see it standing again. “I remember that moment clearly,” I told my children. “We’ll never forget the day everything was taken from us.”

We ran to the nearby city of Jabalia and found shelter in a UN school. But within a week, Israeli forces forced us to flee again—this time to Rafah, in the south.

My children kept asking me, “Why is this happening to us, father? Why are they killing so many people?”. I had no answers. All I could do was hold them close.

We witnessed unspeakable horrors. Massacres on the roads. Families torn apart. We spent over a year in Rafah, just surviving. Then, once again, we were displaced—this time to Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis. For eight months, we slept on the sand by the sea. We had nothing. It was there that my wife became pregnant with our newest and seventh child, Yahya, who has only just been born.

We faced death over and over again. In Khan Younis, we saw it with our own eyes—dozens of times. But by the grace of God, we survived until the ceasefire.

We were finally allowed to return north. We clung to hope that our home might still be standing. For three days, we walked—my wife, my children, and I—racing to see it. But when we arrived, all that remained was rubble. “My children cried as we sifted through the wreckage. I found some of their toys beneath the debris and set up a tent on top of what used to be our home". We stayed there for less than a month. Then, once again, we were forced to flee under fire when the ceasefire ended.

Now, we are in western Gaza City—displaced yet again. We’ve been here for over a month, and we are starving. The famine has reached us. Our bodies are weak. My children cry from hunger every day. Many around us have already died from lack of food. Sahar almost reached the tenth month of pregnancy due to malnutrition.

We have nothing left. Not even the strength to endure much longer.

I beg our friends around the world: Please, help us survive.

After everything we’ve faced, don’t let us die of hunger. Help us to feed my wife, so that she can feed our newborn baby Yahya. Help us to buy diapers and formula.

Your donation today could mean food for our children tomorrow. It could mean shelter, safety, and the chance to welcome our newborn baby into a world that still has kindness in it.

Please stand with us—one family among thousands who refuse to give up.

With your help, we can make it through this final difficulty.

With love and hope,

Shady