Please help my musician friends get out of Gaza

Please help my Palestinian musician friends get out of Gaza

Hi, my name is Lauren and I'm asking you to help my friends Bakr Khader, his pregnant wife Aseel, and Naser Alkharaz find refuge in Egypt from the devastating war in Gaza which has claimed over 26,000 lives and displaced 90% of its people. I’ve known Bakr and Naser for several years from our involvement with a local charity helping children in Gaza with food, medical assistance, and cultural programming. What to me is most impressive is that they have continued with full force effort to provide these basics and enrichments for children throughout this and previous years of turmoil, when their own trauma is extreme. Bakr and Naser led a wonderful music education program for children in Rafah Camp. They are incredibly talented musicians, as you can hear in this sample of their music. https://youtu.be/HErD2JfrpN4. They are also idealistic young people, full of hope and promise, who want to live in peace and freedom, finish school, make music, start a family, and have the chance to follow their dreams. But since the war started between Hamas and Israel on October 7, my friends have lost extended family members, friends and colleagues, including one of our volunteers. With drones striking and building collapsing all around them, they fear each day could be their last. The winter temperatures are cold in Gaza, without electricity, and food and water are scarce. My friends, who live in Rafah, are lucky to still have homes, but that could end at any moment. With hospitals across Gaza destroyed, I worry especially about Aseel having access to pre-natal care.

An American friend is in Cairo now, helping Gazan civilians arrange for safe passage to Egypt and get linked up with other Palestinians and services when they arrive. The situation changes daily, but currently, $5,000 per person will get one’s name on the exit list. I am aiming to raise $18,000 so that we can get my three friends to safety, with $5000 each to arrange for the broader crossing and $1,000 each for resettlement expenses. I will match donations dollar for dollar until the goal is reached. A donor has already given $5,000 for one close friend, and now we are trying to help the other three.

This is not an easy decision for my friends to flee the only home they have ever known, and become refugees in a new land. They will be leaving behind their parents, siblings, and communities. It's unknown how they will live and work in Egypt and when—if ever—they will be able to return. But with over 1% of the population of Gaza having perished since the start of the war, this is now a matter of life and death. I think about my Jewish grandparents fleeing Eastern Europe in the early 20th Century, and am thankful that they had the foresight to get out when they did. I think of the lives that were saved because someone offered a safe shelter, or a ticket out. Now it is our chance to save a few lives.