Help Aya's father feed his 63 relatives
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Note: Aya & her father’s fundraiser has been verified by GazaFunds & the PalestineAsdiqa aid collective. If you have any questions about her family’s campaign, please email me at [email redacted].
Hello, and thank you for visiting my fundraiser. My name is Aya, and I’m a sixth year medical student from Gaza. The calamity that has befallen my family over the past 6 months is impossible to describe. Our house, which we’d invested years of labor and love in building, was bombed, and only part of my family was rescued from under the rubble.
My father was spared none of the horrors of the genocide. He drank the same salty water and ate the same rancid canned food that everyone else did. He waited hours to acquire this filthy water, hours to relieve himself, and days to shower. He learned to sleep through bombing and shelling, knowing he might never wake up. He was displaced a total of six times, and injured in an I0F bombing of his Rafah *tent encampment* that killed one of his brothers, forced the amputation of another brother’s leg, and severely burned his brother-in-law.
Throughout it all, he worked. My father has worked doggedly for over a decade as a journalist at Palestine TV. His and others’ efforts were actually celebrated at an event held for Gazan journalists in Cairo.
While my father is happy to be recognized for his courageous work, recognition alone cannot restore what he and his family have lost. Recognition alone cannot cover his or his family’s pressing needs, and our family, having lost everything, has many, many pressing needs. This is what our family’s home and neighborhood looks like today.
My father still cares for his 7 brothers and 4 sisters who haven’t yet left Gaza. A chicken costs $35, if you can find one, and a bag of flour $1,000. Life in Gaza is very unpredictable, to say the least. You can fall deathly ill at any time, and the IOF can gravely wound you ar any time, as happened to my Uncle Ibrahim when my family’s tents were bombed late one night. My father hopes to give each of his 11 siblings $300 a month, which is nowhere near enough to live decently in besieged & blockaded Gaza, but should at least enable them to somehow subsist.
My father still owes $25,000 to the Ramallah-based Bank of Palestine for his destroyed house, by the way. Monthly payments are automatically deducted from his salary, leaving him with only $200 a month to support his family. Rent for my family of six evacuees’ 3 room apartment in Cairo is $400. My 19 year old brother, who like the others is in Egypt on a temporary refugee permit, is not authorized to work.
In summary, my father needs:
-$3,000 per month to provide for relatives yet to evacuate Gaza
-$400 per month to pay rent for evacuated relatives
-$200 per month to cover the funds deducted from his account each month to pay the mortgage on his destroyed house.
We hope the genocide will somehow, by God’s grace, end within the next few months. We are all very tired. For now, my father will base our target on the assumption that the war will end in 4 months. That means we will need:
-$12,000 to support his siblings in Gaza,
-$800 to cover the mortgage on the rubble of his home
-$1,200 to cover rent for us evacuees in Cairo
My family deeply appreciates and will never forget your solidarity and support.
Love,
Aya
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Fundraising team: Team fundraiser (2)
Estefan Sevilla
Organiser
Fairfax, VA
علاء نضال
Team member