Our story

Our names are Obaida and Mohammed, and we are two brothers from Gaza.

This fundraiser was originally created by our older brother, Yahya, during one of the most difficult periods our family had ever experienced. At that time, the goal was to help our family survive the war and, if possible, find a way to safety.

A lot has changed since then.

Today, we want to use this campaign to tell our own story and to focus on something that has become very important to us: **continuing our education, rebuilding our lives, and having a real chance to shape our future.**

The last years have changed almost everything around us.

Our home was destroyed. Our education was interrupted. The routines, places and opportunities that normally form a young person's life disappeared very quickly.

Instead of thinking about school, university, hobbies, friends and what we wanted to do with our lives, much of our energy had to go toward simply adapting to circumstances that were completely outside our control.

But we do not want those circumstances to decide the rest of our lives.

We want to continue learning

Education is one of the most important things to us.

We want to continue studying properly, develop our skills and eventually reach university and professional opportunities that allow us to become independent.

The disruption of education in Gaza has made that much more difficult.

Studying requires much more than motivation. It requires reliable access to learning materials, technology, internet, courses, exams and eventually the ability to apply to universities or other educational programs.

We want to have those possibilities again.

We want to be able to learn languages, improve our technical and academic skills, take courses, prepare for university and explore the subjects we may want to dedicate our lives to.

We know that rebuilding an education after years of interruption will take time.

But we are ready to do the work.

We also want the chance to simply be young

Our goal is not only to study.

We also want to experience the normal parts of life that have been missing for so long.

We want to play sports, develop hobbies, meet people, learn new things, travel when opportunities become possible and discover what interests us.

These things may sound ordinary, but for us they have become very valuable.

Growing up is not only about surviving or passing exams.

It is also about having experiences, gaining confidence, making mistakes, discovering what you are good at and gradually becoming independent.

We want that chance.

What your support would help us with

The money raised through this campaign will help us rebuild the educational and personal foundation we need for the next stage of our lives.

It may help cover things such as:

- School and educational expenses

- University preparation and future tuition

- Laptops and other technology needed for studying

- Books and educational materials

- Reliable internet access

- Language courses

- Professional and technical training

- Examination and certification fees

- University and scholarship applications

- Documentation and administrative expenses

- Travel or relocation connected to educational opportunities

- Sports and cultural activities

- Basic living expenses that allow us to study in a stable environment

Our needs will change as our situation changes, so we will continue updating this page and explaining how the support is being used.

Why we are asking for help

One of the hardest things about the last few years has been the feeling that our lives were standing still while time continued moving.

We cannot recover everything that was lost.

But we can still decide what happens next.

We do not want to spend the coming years only thinking about what happened to us.

We want to think about what we can build.

We want to finish our education.

We want to discover careers that interest us.

We want to become capable of supporting ourselves and our family.

We want to see more of the world, meet people, learn from them and eventually contribute something ourselves.

Most of all, we want to reach a point where our future depends more on the decisions we make than on the circumstances around us.

A new chapter

Many people supported our family when this fundraiser was first created.

Some of you donated. Some shared the campaign. Some sent messages or tried to help in other ways.

We want you to know that we are deeply grateful.

That support came during an extremely difficult time for our family.

This campaign now represents a new chapter for us.

We are asking for help not only because of what we have been through, but because of what we are still hoping to become.

We are young, we still have ambitions, and we still believe that education can give us a path forward.

If you are able to support us, thank you.

If you cannot donate, sharing our story can also help us reach people who may be able to support our education and future.

We hope that one day we will be able to look back at this period not only as something we survived, but as the point from which we began building our lives again.

Thank you for believing in us.

Obaida and Mohammed