Donate to help my family escape the war in Gaza.

Hello everybody, my name is Ahmed. I’m a Palestinian from Gaza who currently lives in Belgium. I’m a university student in Brussels, more specifically VUB. I’m raising this fundraiser to help get at least a couple of members of my beloved family out of Gaza. To escape the current televised massacre and the genocide against the Palestinians

As of today, the current situation of my family members is the following: They used to live in the north in a neighbourhood called Shijaia in Gaza City until day 90 of the war when they had to evacuate because of the destruction of the whole neighbourhood and of course the lack of safety there. Some of them fled to the South and others stayed in the North either in the Shijaia neighborhood or Khan Younis City or Al Zatoun Street because they couldn’t go anywhere. The ones in the north, we don’t know anything about them, and we haven’t had any contact with them since day 90. We hope that they are still surviving this massacre.

The ones that fled to the south are all now living in small tents in Rafah. And they are like anybody else there in Gaza risking their life for just a small bit of food and trying to shelter themselves. They were first sheltered in Alshifa Hospital a while back but then When it got taken down, they went to another hospital (I don’t remember the name of it honestly). But then due to overcrowding, they had to go somewhere else. This family had never been separated even before the war we were all living in a big family house, and no one had ever been separated from each other even after marriage. Now because of the war they all are separated with some of them in tents, others on the street just trying to shelter anywhere and for the members still in the north the last thing we heard is that they are in nearly collapsing houses because there is nowhere else to go.

This is a pain that every Palestinian shares right now and we’ve never expected it. I haven't seen my family since 2015 and I’ve never thought that it would become like this. The stress is daily. We have lost a lot of people, millions are being affected, nearly 700000 are injured and more than 30000 were brutally murdered. These are not just numbers. They are Human beings. Among them are a chunk of people that were my family members.

For example, one of my uncles from my mother’s side was an artist. He lost all his children, grandchildren, and a leg. The whole family was wiped out of the civil system. From my father’s side, I lost two uncles one got shot while he was getting food and blankets for the rest and the other had kidney failure and of course, couldn’t get treated during the war because of the lack of medical supplies.

This is just a fraction of what is happening in Gaza. With your help, we can help save some lives. Some of the members that are going to be saved with your help are the following:

My grandmother: Fatima, she's in her 70's and she suffers from diabetes type 1 and now struggles to get her insulin shots.

My uncle Baheej, his wife Najla, and his 5 kids with one of them having cardiac problems.

My aunt and the widow of my deceased uncle. Her name is Alaa, got married not so long ago and they’ve had a beautiful child who’s 5 now. Because of the war, she became a widow, and my cousin lost his father.

My uncle Motasem and his family, his wife Amani, and their 3 kids Lamar, Mohammed, and Lara.

These are the names of just a couple, there are still uncles and aunts with their families, and we will try to get them out but of course, it won't always be possible because of the huge amount of money that is needed to get people out of Gaza.

How is your support going to be used?

The support will be used to pay for special permits on the Egyptian borders.

Unfortunately, the cost for that rises by the hour and shifts, starting at 500 USD per person and ending up at 11,000 USD per person. We hope that children under 18 do not need permits to cross the borders. For now, we know that the total cost per person is around 6000 USD just to pass from Gaza to Egypt.

The rest of your support will be used to aid them in Egypt to rent a place for a month until they find work. It is expected to be divided as follows:

A. The Sini: Transportation from Rafah border to Cairo. While cars that cross the Sini desert between the two cities control the prices and charges for passengers escaping the war, it should not cost more than 2,000 USD.

C. Upon arrival: The search for a place to stay because we have nobody in Egypt, and we don’t know how much it would cost but we assume that 2,000 USD will help them through the month.

The most important thing is getting them out of Gaza into a safe place to Egypt and that would be a total of 66000 for the passing of 11 people above 18 + 2,000USD transport so 68000 for everything. This is the most important amount. If there is any extra, then we will use it to help them get up on their feet for some period.

How Can You Support Us?

If you cannot donate, the next best thing you could do for us is to share this with your friends and your community. I want my family out of harm's way, we would greatly appreciate any help we can get!

Thank you all so very much for donating and/or Sharing this way you will be helping with saveing lives,

Ahmed Shamali

These are some pictures of my family members before and after the war:

At last some pictures of our destroyed Family house and their situation now.

(this last picture is of my uncle in the tent and how he was struggling to prevent the water from leaking inside of the tent because of the rain. They live and sleep on the floor because there are no beds nor at least mattresses nor sleeping bags.)