Hi, my name's Katrina King and I'm fundraising to help my friend Khamis and his family escape Gaza and rebuild their lives. I'm originally from Wales but I now live in Italy. I met Khamis Hesham in February 2021 while volunteering with Gaza Sky Geeks. Khamis had just graduated with a degree in Computer Science and I was helping him improve his English so he could start working. In February 2022, Khamis married Yasmeen and they started planning a life together. A year later, Yasmeen fell pregnant and the young couple couldn't have been happier.

Sadly, we all know what happened just a few months later. Once again, Khamis' and Yasmeen's lives were thrown into disarray as they had been so many times before, but this time was different. This time Yasmeen was heavily pregnant while the bombs dropped around them. On the 1st November, baby Maryam arrived safely into an increasingly unsafe world.

Since then, Maryam has grown up to the sound of explosions and trauma. If the family survive this war (Khamis's fifth in his young life), Maryam will grow up in a country that has been completely destroyed. She won't have the opportunities and privileges that a lot of children take for granted.

For the past eight months, I have felt helpless as I've kept in touch as much as possible with Khamis. Sometimes I don't hear from him for weeks at a time but I keep trying. The only thing I can do is fundraise to ensure that baby Maryam will have a better future.

Khamis grew up in Rafah and that is where they lived until Israel invaded the city. Thay have now been displaced and are living in a tent in a refugee camp. Where will they go next? There's nowhere left. That's why I want to try to get them out of Gaza. It's a huge task but we have to do something. Food and aid is scarce, and disease is everywhere. Before being displaced, Khamis volunteered at a medical point as an administrator to help people. The risk of epidemics is growing daily.

Ultimately, I don't know if we'll be able to get them out of Gaza but if we can't, the money will go towards helping them rebuild their lives once the war is over. Can you help give them a little bit of hope? Every euro or pound or dollar truly counts. Khamis has a brother in Germany and we will be working with him to get the money to the family.