Imagine yourself a bright young girl growing up in a very conservative Palestinian family where a her role is to be subordinate – to her dad, her brothers, and her husband. But suppose you aspire to something more?

Maybe you harbor a burning desire to have a profession and make a difference – to help build a better future for your community and your people? Education and hard work have enabled countless Palestinians to succeed in the homeland and throughout the diaspora, despite all the wars and despite the odds. You are willing to work hard. All you need now is the education.

M.M., a Palestinian from Gaza, was such a girl.* Outstanding scholarship in her Gaza high school won her two years of college in Canada. Excellent grades there won her another two years and a B.A. plus fluency in English and French. Returning to Gaza to serve her community, she worked at various jobs in finance and development, meanwhile resisting intense pressure to marry and start a family instead.

Now picture that M.M. had carefully saved enough money to begin an MA in Cairo, via distance learning initially, plus a residency period later. But then Egypt closed the border with Gaza, indefinitely. No residency in Cairo, no degree – so she lost all her investment. Yet, she persisted. She won a full-tuition intensive MA scholarship at a prestigious European university but could not finance the living expenses, and had to decline. Finally, never giving up, M.M. began a summer graduate studies program, partly on scholarship, in the USA. From there she segued to a Master’s track, funded mostly by donations from strangers all over the world. Living from hand to mouth, working at minimum-wage jobs on campus when she could find them, she finished an MA in peace and conflict studies with (as always) outstanding grades. She then completed additional graduate courses and a year later was accepted for a PhD program in her field in Canada. 

Next came… Covid.

M.M.’s student visa in the US was about to expire. Travel options were quickly narrowing everywhere. Would she succeed in entering Canada to take up her doctoral studies? She needed a break now, and she got one: another student visa and entry to Canada. But it came too late for her to apply for scholarships for this fall. Once again, she will be barred from working off campus initially by visa restrictions. If only she can crowdfund her first year’s tuition, books, and living expenses until she can find on-campus work and apply for scholarships and grants for next year.

Here is where you come in. Our GoFundMe campaign is meant to bridge M.M. into and through her first year of PhD studies, moving her another step closer to her dream: Professional credentials and tools to work toward a better future for Gaza and its people, especially its young people. Her proposed dissertation focus is on researching ways to help the youth in Gaza create a better tomorrow, even under siege.

Won’t you please step up and join this campaign? Donate if you can, what you can, today. Share M.M.’s story with all your circles. As I (a friend in the Middle East) write this, we’ve raised just over $1,000, with about $22,500 still to go. The deadline is the end of August. Just a few hundred more caring donors can get this done. If you jump in now, donate, and alert your social media contacts, friends, and family, together we can do this for M.M. – and for young girls with dreams everywhere, and for Gaza, a very hard place to dream in. Won’t you join us today? Please – donate now and pass the word widely.

Maybe we can’t help every deserving young woman on earth achieve her dream, but we can help this one. We can help her help the kids of Gaza with her research. Then one day, thousands of Gaza youngsters may be thanking us for our foresight and generosity. Let’s do this! 

*The name used in this campaign is a pseudonym to protect M.M.’s anonymity. We are not including specific details of her location or university, for her safety. The GoFundMe organizer knows her real ID but is protecting her from harassment by extremists who oppose peace-building between the parties to the conflict in Palestine and elsewhere. Thank you for your understanding.*