Hi, this is Stefi. I had the privilege to spend some time in Gaza working as a humanitarian worker before and during the genocide and to meet and work with a strong and wonderful lady, Kholoud. I would like to help Kholoud raise some funds for her family. Please read her message below:

 

My name is Kholoud Tibi, I reside in Gaza and I am seeking to fundraise to help my family escape the dire situation in Gaza. Please help save the life of my innocent family and children who are facing a very high risk of death, starvation, cold, and disease.

 

Me and my husband Iyad, along with our four children Mohannad (3 y/o), Jamal (7 y/o), Malak (10 y/o) and Ismail (12 y/o), my mother (67 y/o), and single sister, have been displaced many times across the Gaza strip to escape death over the past two years and until now, the situation is getting horribly worse that each day we survive death and don't know if we'll make it alive the following day. We moved from place to another under the impression that it would be safer, yet we experience displacement more and more and until now it has been proven to us that there is no safe place in Gaza anymore, as we and our children are currently under heavy bombardment, hungry and exhausted. We lost everything, everything that my family and children once knew and loved is completely gone. All their belongings, toys, clothes, books, pictures, memories, house and own bedrooms, schools, and livelihoods were destroyed by relentless bombing and airstrikes.

 

Food is incredibly scarce, and my kids are growing increasingly malnourished. They are surviving on only a very limited amount of poor-quality food, and unclean water which led to poor health in the whole family. My youngest children, Mohannad and Jamal, who are only 3 and 8 years old, contracted gastric infection repeatedly and have been in desperate pain with no medical help readily available. They keep us the parents up all night in agony. Clean water is also almost non-existent, another cause for disease. Washing water is insufficient which makes maintaining cleanliness a challenge.

Lack of aid items entering the Gaza strip has exacerbated the suffering, as very few items of all kind of merchandise are available with astronomical prices that we cannot afford; food, medicine, clothes, water, fuel. We are forced to make fire to cook and heat water as cooking gas is prevented from entering Gaza, we use plastic and any wasted materials to burn due to unavailability and expensive prices of wood, exposing us to harmful smoke which caused my husband and older son to develop respiratory illness.

 

In our quest to flee from place to place, from north down to south to middle area escaping the danger, we've lived many days and nights in a tent in the street without any resources exposed to unsanitary conditions, attacks of stray animals, theft, extreme weather conditions of heat and cold waves, drought, and heavy precipitation, flooding, winds that damaged our tent several times and left us homeless. In the overcrowded random displacement sites, I suffer the lack of privacy. I feel exposed to the public unable to move safely to do the chores such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, showering kids in the street, which is undermining my ability to care for my children. We suffer due to lack of latrines as we have to wait hours to use primitive toilets, and our opportunities to shower are very few, leading to the spread of head lice infestation and skin rash in the camp infecting my children who developed painful and itchy skin. The showers are also very dirty, due to lack of hygiene materials.

 

All the family sleep in one tent that is overcrowded and barely have space for everyone to sleep, this is becoming unbearable for all of us.

 

Two years living in an active war zone has put my family in a great deal of terror and near-death experiences. My kids have developed psychological distress and PTSD and cannot heal due to continuing horror of bombing and displacement. They cannot live normally, cannot eat, sleep or play, always scared to die or lose each other. Overall, the kids have missed out on so much of their life, including two years of regular schooling, which is still impossible to resume in the near future, healthy development and wellbeing.

 

My innocent children deserve nothing but to live in peace and enjoy their childhood and wellbeing therefore I am appealing for your support to help us flee death and give these children a hope to feel safe again, and seek their future somewhere safe.

 

We desperately call upon anyone reading this message to help us, especially as further escalations are likely and starvation continues that would put our lives at imminent death risk.

 

Your donation and sharing widely our story will greatly help us meet our basic needs for food, treatment, shelter and essentials, as well as help cover relocation and displacement costs.

 

Thank you so much for your consideration and for all your generous contributions.