Help Najy's Family Rebuild Their Lives

A note from Najy, translated by the organizer of this fundraiser (information about me at the bottom).

My name is Najy. I am a barber, a recent survivor from Gaza, and above all — a father.

For several long and painful months, I watched my children shake with fear almost every night, and my heart broke while I searched for the words to comfort them and found nothing. After making desperate appeals on social media, I derived great strength from the financial support of hundreds of strangers with pure hearts. You became our lifeline. Your generosity enabled us to evacuate to Egypt less than one month before the invasion of Rafah and the closing of the border. Praise be to God.

There is a truth about refugees that many people take for granted: escaping is only the first in a long series of life-threatening challenges. Since my family’s arrival in Cairo, it has been tremendously difficult to achieve even the most simple tasks. We do not have citizenship and this makes it almost impossible to find work and put food on the table. On top of this stress, all of us are dealing with severe post-trauma from the unimaginable horrors that we experienced. We were in survival mode during our time in Gaza. Now that we have achieved relative safety, all of the emotions we were forced to suppress are flooding us in full force. I am kept awake with worry for my loved ones who remain in Rafah suffering unimaginable horrors. Bureaucratically and psychologically, every day is a new challenge.

In the photos, you will see my beautiful children: Mohammad, Yousef, Sandy, and Seline. Mohammad and Yousef were deprived of education due to the war. Sandy was deprived of kindergarten. Seline was deprived of breast milk due to my wife’s starvation. The horrors that they experienced exist in a realm beyond words. With steadfastness and faith, we are working to rebuild their precious bodies and souls.

My children are the soul of my soul; the most beautiful thing God could ever create. They did not deserve to live under bombardment, starvation, and the loss of their classmates whose bodies were found beneath the rubble. Nor do they deserve to be impoverished in a foreign country where they are strangers. I am humbly asking for financial support so that we can get on our feet in Egypt — paying the fees to find permanent housing, file for citizenship so that I can work, and afford our basic necessities until I secure income. Our family’s biggest dream is to return to Gaza and rebuild our lives — our house and the hair salon. But we are taking things one step at a time.

I never dreamed that our evacuation would be possible, but the kindness of strangers around the world has surprised me and restored my hope in the world. It is for this reason that I am appealing to you again. Governments and foundations were not there for us in our darkest hour, it was you: the people. May god bless you and grant you happiness.

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I'm NinaJean Saligman --- a 22 year old American college student from Philadelphia who met Najy Akram, from Khan Younis in Gaza, several years ago in a language exchange to advance my Arabic. I translated his words.