Help Osama from Gaza to get higher education

My name is Osama Naim (https://www.instagram.com/osama_naim9/?hl=en). I am a 24-year-old Palestinian from Gaza - a humanitarian worker, researcher, and peace activist. This year, I was admitted to the Master of Advanced International Studies programme at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna with a full scholarship, starting on 22 September 2025. It is my only chance for safety, dignity, and a future. But I cannot reach Vienna without help. Austrian law requires €16,169 in a bank account as a proof of sufficient means to issue a student visa and residence permit. I have no home, no income, and no way to access a bank in Gaza.

This campaign is my only lifeline.

Long before the war, I believed in nonviolence. I still do. I believed in international law, in the dignity of civilians, in dialogue. I was the kind of person who found comfort in books, in quiet walks, in listening to people’s stories. I loved literature and enjoyed teaching other young people about rights and critical thinking. My world was not large, but it was full of meaning. That world is gone now.

Since October 2023, Gaza has become a place where language fails. I have been displaced multiple times. The building I lived in was reduced to dust. I’ve slept on hospital floors next to the dead. I’ve carried bodies from bombed stairwells. I’ve buried strangers when no one else could. I’ve stood in blood and silence, waiting for the next missile. I’ve lost friends. I’ve lost family. I’ve lost time. I have survived more than one direct attack. I have stood in silence waiting for the next missile, knowing people I spoke to hours earlier are no longer alive.

And yet I kept going. Even while displaced, I continued working in protection, supporting children through psychosocial support, led awareness sessions for women in shelters, documented violations, and coordinated emergency responses. I did this while hungry, while grieving, while fearing for my life — because I believed people deserved support even if the world had abandoned us. Everything I had, I gave.

Now I have nothing left. Gaza is under siege. Hunger is used as a weapon. Some days I eat nothing. I have seen children faint from hunger, mothers boil water to quiet their children’s cries. This is deliberate starvation we are facing now.

And yet, there is still a light. The Diplomatic Academy saw in me not just a survivor, but a student, a future contributor to global dialogue, as a peacebuilder. It is the only light I have seen in months. And I want to carry Gaza with me into spaces that too often erase us.

To do that, I must raise €16,169 to meet the Austrian visa requirement, secure travel health insurance, and cover my living expenses while studying in Vienna. Any additional contributions received will be allocated as a risk margin to cover expenses, such as, coordination and travels, among others. This is not just an academic opportunity — it is a path to safety, and a way to turn my survival into service.

I am not asking for charity. I am asking for a chance to live, to study, and to work for peace. Every contribution, no matter the size, brings me closer to safety — and keeps alive the belief that even in the darkest places, solidarity still exists.

I, Natali Rangel, will hereby ensure complete transparency with all the donations, providing updates on how the funds are used to support Osama.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and refusing to look away.