Help me evacuate my family and start a new life

My name is Ahmed Issa, I live in devastated Gaza and I have a family of 4 kids; Raouf 12, Walid 11, Alma 5 and Rafeef 3 months old. I hold a PhD degree in Mechatronics Engineering and used to have a relatively decent life before the brutal war on Gaza. After six months of continuous suffering and insecurity, I now reside with my family in Rafah city away from my destroyed house and workplace in Gaza city. We literally spend most of the day hours setting on the street because the shelter we managed to secure at a relative’s is so small it barely accommodates us for sleeping at night.

I wake up everyday to helplessness and despair watching my kids’ safety, future and dreams being ruptured.

Ever since I started my career as a university lecturer in Gaza, I worked very hard to help students pursue better education and helped many of them become successful leaders. In addition to this, I worked hard on fundraising money for social and technical developments in vital sectors such as disability and rehabilitation technologies, e-learning platforms, entrepreneurship and engineering education in general.

My young boys who should be attending school and taking piano and lute classes in the afternoons, now spend their days in queues for bread, water refills and humanitarian relief. I avoid looking at my wife and little Rafeef who was born during war, because it reminds me of what our life once used to be. My little Alma who started pre-school 2 months before the war, now feels scared and confused most of the time. It’s unfortunate that I feel helpless like never before and I can’t think of practical ways to save my family. There are no secure places in Gaza. This is why I decided after long-thinking to leave Gaza with my family hoping that my kids will have a better future.

Guardian Article to explain travel challenges: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/08/palestinians-flee-gaza-rafah-egypt-border-bribes-to-brokers

(My little Alma)

It hurts a lot and tears one into pieces to see all that I have worked for getting ruptured, family, workplace, plans, ambition and dreams of a simple peaceful life.

I need the money to save the last pieces of hope that I still have “my kids” by taking them to a safe place, hoping that we’ll be able to start over a new path in life. This money will cover travel registration and permission fees to cross the boarders from Rafah to Egypt. It costs about 8k per adult and 4k per child under 16 years. I will use any extra money raised to help the poor and needy people who left their houses and live in tents in Rafah city.

As I’ve always been a devoted man to helping my close community and the human community at large, I promise to continue in such a way by giving back aid and services to needy fellow humans in the future.

Your help by any means is highly valued and appreciated and means a lot to my kids, my wife and me.

If you would like to donate using PayPal here you can use my sister account: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BatoulHania

Sincerely,

Ahmed Issa.

ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ahmed-Issa-15

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmedissa/