Hello, I am Samer Shaat, a father of four children, and I live in Gaza - Palestine, which is currently subjected to a fierce war and continuous bombing for more than six months.

I want to start my story about a year before the war began when I decided to build my own house, which is a floor above the house that my family owns. Based on this decision, I collected all the money I had saved throughout my working career for more than 17 years and sold my own car. I borrowed a sum of money to complete the construction of a house that would include me and my family, which at the time in my imagination was the house in which I would spend the rest of my life with my family.

Indeed, I started building the house and supervising all the large and small details, starting with the columns and walls, finishing, and ending with the furniture and electrical appliances.

After more than a year of effort motivated by hope, I finished preparing the house that my small family dreamed of, and we moved to live in the new house on the first of August 2023.

But unfortunately, after only about two months, the war began, and the violent bombardment of everything, including hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. After nearly a month of the start of the war, I was forced to leave my home and move with my family to the southern Gaza Strip. This was on 11/12/2023, and this was the last day I saw my home. Less than a month later, the house was bombed and became a pile of rubble.

I could not believe at the time what had happened, and I felt like I was in a disturbing nightmare. But as time passed and after I saw the pictures that my relatives had taken at the place, I began to understand and submit to God’s decree and destiny. But now my family and I have become homeless and without a monthly income, and we cannot provide the minimum necessities of life, including food and clothing, as my primary job before the war was to work remotely as a mobile application programmer. Unfortunately, due to the blackout of electricity and the Internet, I lost all my clients and no longer have any source of income.

My brother Mohammed, who lives in Canada, advised me to create an account on the GoFundMe platform under his management so that I can reach you, publish my case, and ask for help as much as possible so that I can travel with my family and start a new life in Canada, which requires large expenses that I cannot bear alone.

I hope that you will sympathize with me and donate to me to reach the amount I need to escape from the war going on in my country now, which has so far killed more than 40,000 people.

The only crossing through which we can exit is the Rafah crossing.

Each adult person is charged a fee of 5,000 USD * 2 = 10,000 USD

Each child is charged afee of

2,500 USD * 4 = 10,000 USD

so I need 20,000 US dollars (27,600 Canadian dollars).

My goal is to raise $27,600 CAD to ensure their safe passage to Egypt.