Help Feed Ahmed's Family & Fund Escape from Gaza

Hi My name is Nina Christine Gorman. I am a psychotherapist and social science teacher in Philadelphia PA, USA. I am fund raising for my good friend, Ahmed Khaled Shami (D.O.B. 3-15-93), his wife Hana Naser Shami (D.O.B. 3-4-99) and their baby Karam. I came to know Ahmed for the past year and a half from purchasing and selling his beautiful art work to others that he sent me from Gaza (after posting on his facebook) to enable him to support his family during the blockade in Gaza that occurred for years even before this war. He is a kind hardworking artist of the highest integrity. He and his family are now enduring hunger, displacement in tent and terrifying war like so many there with Gaza almost entirely destroyed and unlivable. I am doing this fundraiser to help him, his wife, child now displaced in Rafah Gaza in the Palestinian Territories during war to secure the funds for evacuation to be safe from the current warand for them to survive in Egypt for a few months until Ahmed can secure employment there. All funds will be transferred to him on his secure paypal to buy food, drink, formula, diapers, clothing and travel expenses to Egypt . He can secure passage from Ya Hala Company for 5,000 each for him and his wife and 2500 for the baby which is significantly less that what is usually the price. Here is the budget:

The Budget is as follows for the amended goals of $21,500 for the campaign

Evacuation 12,500 (5,000 per adult and 2,500 per child)

Apartment rental in Egypt 2800 (for 3 months at $700 USD plus deposit of 700 USD)

Living Expenses in Egypt for 2700 (for 3 months of 900 per month including food, drink, diapers, formula, toiletries)

Basic Furniture of bedding in Egypt and kitchen table 500 USD

Living Expenses in Gaza 3,000 (3 months for 1,000 a month for food, drink, formula, diapers and basic clothing for family) until funds can be secured for evacuation

8. The method of payment to the recipient of Ahmed for his family is via his secure Paypal

Here is what Ahmed says in his own words:

I'm Ahmed, a young man from Gaza, and I'm 30 years old, I'm married and father of a child who is only 8 months old.I have had a talent for drawing since childhood, and have always been proud to be able to share it with my friends including those around the world who have honored me with their appreciation and before the current war with their purchases.

As a person who lives in Gaza whose situation has not been stable for more than 17 years of economic blockade my family and other Palestinians have endured poverty and unemployment and a lack of job opportunities for everyone, especially young people who always dream of a bright future, and like almost everyone, I worked at an early age just to be able to achieve even a simple part of my dreams, as I used to work for approximately 12 hours a day for 11 years for better future here. The repeated wars

and harsh aggressions caused the collapse of all sectors, such as the health, economic, educational, farming, fishing now causing my family and most in Gaza to endure hunger with many now starving.

I got married in 2017 after a long effort to build an apartment in the family home. Every young man here dreams of getting even a room in which to start his married life and gain a little stability and independence. I used to feel like I would fly with joy whenever I accomplished or added something to the apartment of my dreams, so I used to work day and night to provide everything for this and to provide the family with the necessities of life to ensure that they have a decent life in light of all the harsh suffering here. I was just doing my utmost.

After my marriage, it was Allah's will that I face certain health problems that caused my wife and I to be late in having children, so I resorted to transplantation in order to have children (several times) in Gaza, which is very expensive for any young man here. At that time, they all failed but we didn't lose hope. So I traveled at the end of October 2022 to Egypt for multiple procedures at great expense and debt. Finally Praise be to Allah, Allah honored us with the success of the operation, and our son "Karam" came into the world in the month of August 2023, that is, only two months before the current war. My wife and I were in indescribable joy, a joy made us forget the fatigue, debts, and made us more eager to achieve our dreams in order to give Karam a life full of love and happiness.

Then after only two months, the shock came and we collided with the biggest nightmare that still has not ended when this very cruel war began and we were forced to move from our home in central Gaza to Khan Yunis and then being displaced again from Khan Yunis to Rafah in unimaginable living conditions in tents with almost no food, fuel, with no electricity, medicine and no sanitation or even toilets with the explosion of bombs daily that make my son and all of the children in the displaced camps shake and cry. The children, adults and elderly have seen and endured such horrors there are no words to describe them.

This war has made us lose a lot so far – many injuries and deaths of relatives, friends, loss of our jobs, and our homes, which have become rubble along with all of our home’s memories, dreams, and paintings that have not yet reached outside the borders of Gaza, this beautiful, stricken city!! Everyday in this war I struggle for my family and my son, who has known nothing in his life except the horror of war. Therefore, I am launching this campaign, hoping that you will be a reason for changing the reality for us for the better, Inshallah, and that you will be a reason for helping us with some of the basics of life, shelter and evacuating my wife, baby and I from Gaza to Egypt, hoping that my son will have the life that every father and mother desire for their children, and trying to build our lives again and search for some stability and security.

Thank you so much. Ahmed Khaled, aka known in Gaza as Painter Ahmed.