Hello everyone, my name is Colin McKenzie and I am trying to raise money to help my friend's family to evacuate from the war in Gaza. All money raised will be sent to his bank account to get his family out of war. Here is Ashraf's message:

I left Gaza one year ago to continue my higher study in Türkiye in the hopes of getting a degree that would help me and my family escape the Gaza Strip where siege, wars, and problems of all kinds seem to never end.

Unfortunately, I couldn't pull them out of Gaza before the recent devastating war.

My wife and three children, Basem, Waseem, Salma are still there living in terror and fear, running from one place to another, enduring shortages of all life essentials, such as food and water; even medicine is scarce. And it's only getting worse by the day.

I've waited three long months hoping the war will end, but it seems it won't any time soon. Most importantly, Gaza has become an inhabitable place to live.

I hope that with your help I can pull them out of the war before it's too late.

Crossing the border to Egypt costs a minimum of $9000; four new passports and visas to Türkiye cost nearly $1300; and plane tickets to Türkiye cost around $1600.

Furthermore, I need to rent an apartment and kickstart a new life; acquire residence permits in Türkiye, buy clothes and furniture etc. since we we lost our home and all our belongings in Gaza.

I truly appreciate your help and I hope that one day I can help you back.

As I am currently living in Türkiye, I cannot set up a GoFundMe. I have a good friend living in Canada who will receive the funds and then transfer them to me. Once the money is collected I will fly to Egypt to pay for the crossing fees. After they leave Gaza we need at least one month in Egypt to make new passports at the consulate, get the visas for Türkiye and buy the tickets. The crossing fees are changing every now and then. Now for the four of them it is changed to be 12500 USD.

I thank you again for any help you can provide me and my family.