Help Deaf Palestinians, the lovely Shaheen Family
Donation protected
NOTE: PLEASE VISIT HODA's LINKTREE TO $$ GFM IS BLOCKING FUNDS, DO NOT SEND HERE.
My name is Isabella (she/her), and I’m Puerto Rican/German and live in the United States. Over the last several months, I have had the honor of getting to know and becoming close friends with Hoda and the Shaheen family. To learn more, please read below and watch their 2014 Al Jazeera feature: A Deaf Family In Gaza!
As they do not have family outside of Gaza, I have started this campaign on their behalf to support them. Hoda and her lovely family are extensions of my own; there is no separation between my family and the Shaheen family. Please help ease their suffering. Here’s how:
- Donating
- Sharing this GFM campaign (especially with people who have the means)
- Creating media campaigns about the Shaheen family (Toolkit for posts coming soon. I will insert the link here once it is ready).
Engage with their social media posts by commenting, liking, bookmarking , and sharing to increase reach (Instagram shaheenashrsf and )
This fundraiser will support them in these ways:
- Take care of living costs (food, cleaning, housing, medications, etc)
- Give them funds for displacement (tent costs have increased by 30%, costing $900+, see more info on the @sameerproject Instagram)
- Funds will be used to cross into Egypt when the border opens and for living expenses once there.
- The cost of evacuating my family, me, my husband, and my four children is $20,000 (Hala charges $5,000 per adult and $2,500 per child). Transaction fees (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction)
From Hoda: Your support during this extremely difficult time will give us hope amid despair. With your support, we will build a future for my family again. Every dollar you donate will be our reason for going to safety and peace. Please support us, even if it is a simple thing like $1 or $2 or sharing our campaign.
All funds from the fundraiser will be transferred to Isabella (due to legal restrictions) and then transferred directly to Hoda Shaheen.
About the Shaheen Family
Hoda Shaheen and Ashraf Shaheen are lovely Deaf and Mute Palestinian parents with four precious daughters: Toleen Shaheen (6), Farah Shaeen (10), Warda Shaheen (15), and Yara Shaheen (16). Ashraf and Hoda have raised a family of artists. They enjoyed making art together before the geno/c!de and hope to create again soon.
About Hoda:
Before the genocide, Hoda worked as a teacher at the Atfaluna Society of the Deaf and is a very talented artist. “I love drawing landscapes, designing in Photoshop, and designing videos.” Her talent is evident in that she won a major art competition in Gaza. See the video attached to see more!
About Ashraf:
He misses their home very much. Ashraf loves his room because he loves playing electronic games on the screen and laptop, and he has a desk, a screen, and everything.
About Yara:
Like her mom, Yara is also an artist; she loves drawing faces, sketching, and cooking. She wants to study architecture and use her talent in drawing in this profession. Yara also wants to learn Photoshop and design. Unfortunately, Yara also suffers from thyroid dysfunction. For most of the genocide, she was without treatment, leaving her frail and ill. Finally, she reached a point where she had to be hospitalized and received intravenous (IV) treatment. However, the hospital received evacuation orders, so she had to leave. Thankfully, she was given oral treatment, which costs $100/month. During this time, she has also developed moderate vitiligo, which causes discomfort. See the images below. Yara requires medical help outside of Gaza as getting her thyroid removed would manage her condition, which is deadly when unregulated.
About Toleen:
Like her older sister, Farah, Toleen enjoys playing with toys, blocks, and dolls a lot. They miss playing a lot. Toleen really loves cats and wants to have many cats in her house when she grows up. In addition, Toleen was born with a blood birthmark. She would like surgery, but it is expensive and needs to be done outside Gaza. Her mother worries about the physical and psychological impacts.
About Farah:
Farah has a beautifully strong personality and wants to grow up to become a pilot because she has seen many videos about flying. She likes this profession, but she does not want to fly a warplane. Farah would love to fly a plane that emits colorful smoke to create something beautiful and not destroy it.
(pictured below)
About Warda:
Warda misses school and her studies. Warda loves studying the Quran and dreams of growing up to be a cook and opening a kitchen. Warda wants to open a restaurant in France when she grows up because she loves France very much, loves its food and sweets, and loves cooking.
Their story…since the start of the gen/oc!de, as written by Hoda in collaboration with Isabella:
Hello, my name is Hoda. I am deaf and mute. I have a husband who is deaf and mute like me. I have four daughters who hear and speak. We live in Palestine, specifically Gaza. We have been in an ongoing [genocide] since October 7 until now, and we have been in the [genocide] for 10 months. My family and I were displaced from northern Gaza because of the occupation’s threat to us and our displacement from our homes to the south, specifically in Nuseirat. My children and I lived through very bad moments due to the current situation and the siege. We suffer from a lack of water, food, and medical treatment. We are now suffering from pollution and diseases. We lived in a canvas tent under the rain, heat, bombing, fear, anxiety, and terror that the occupation caused us. The occupation displaced us again from Nuseirat and asked us to go to Deir al-Balah. They violently invaded Nusairat. Two months later, we have returned to Nuseirat.
In July, the Israeli occupation has threatened to evacuate our entire area of Nuseirat and all of Bureij. We were displaced from Nuseirat out of fear and terror, and my children are terrified. We slept in the street. We did not have a tent. We left Nuseirat with thousands of our families and the other displaced people of Gaza. I was displaced from Nusairat to al-Zawayda. May God help us. Our situation is much worse than it was days before this evacuation order. We could buy a tent within a day through your lovely community support. Thank you so much. It was very difficult. We had no connection for many days and were cut off from communicating with the world. I had to walk many long miles to find a connection, which is very dangerous, especially because I cannot hear the bombings. Thankfully, we could then stay with family members near Deir Al-Balah. In order to have electricity, we obtained a solar panel, which we desperately need for light. Since my husband, Ashraf, and I are Deaf, it is crucial we have light to be able to see each other sign to communicate. We are still raising funds to pay off the solar panels; ~$900 is still needed. To support the solar panel fundraiser, please donate here linktree.com/teamhoda. Thankfully, we have been able to return to Nuseirat to stay with family.
Messages from:
• Ashraf: We were displaced from our home in northern Gaza to southern Gaza. This loss circle didn’t end here, because after more than 4 times of being displaced and having to leave our house to escape from rockets and death, we returned to our home. We found it almost wiped off. More than half of it was destroyed and became an unlivable place, leaving us not only with tired hearts but also without a place to stay in
The occupation destroyed our home and our beautiful offspring in our house in Gaza, and now we have lived in tents and have had no shelter and moved into family homes. Trapped between the walls of constant danger, we have hope of escaping to a safe place, but travel has become impossible due to its high costs, and we find ourselves trapped in horrors with no chance of escape.
• Hoda: We live in moments of panic over and over again in this hideous war on Gaza. We move between shelter and shelter, but we find ourselves in this harsh reality inside a nylon tent that does not protect us from the bitter cold and rain, as the recent bombings in Gaza shattered our lives and left my family without shelter. Homeless and without any possessions, our beloved home, a symbol of our efforts and love, has been completely destroyed in this war. We find ourselves with nothing but the clothes on us. We have seen destruction and death up close as the basics of life have become unattainable wishes: no water, no electricity, food, and shelter. The task of obtaining food is extremely challenging. My daughters suffer from severe psychological trauma, and it may be difficult for them to recover.
How to connect with us:
Ashraf’s Instagram:
Ashraf's Twitter:
Hoda's TikTok: @ho.da73
https://www.tiktok.com/@ho.da73?_t=8nJLmdCezjN&_r=1
For questions:
Isabella's Instagram:
Organizer
Isabella Ramirez De Arellano
Organizer
Washington D.C., DC