Hello dear community and newly found friends

If you don't know me yet my name is Marian, I live in Switzerland and since couple of months I've been collecting funds to help Gazans who got forcibly displaced since the genocidal land grab campaign of the zionist occupiers started.

This time I decided to fly to Egypt on the 5th of March and distribute the funds already gathered through different means myself.

With this fundraiser I intend to gather more funds I can distribute to critical cases who have just arrived in Egypt since i don't think I'll be able to reach Rafah personally. But if things work out right I might be able to reach some cases in Gaza itself through different ways.

By supporting this mission you can help me reach as many families as possible. How many families I reach is entirely depending on how long the funds last. At the end of my stay I will hand out the rest of the funds to people I trust to continue with the distribution.

Here some more detailed infos of past and present:

How did I collect the funds so far?

One method used was through advertising a Gofundme fundraiser for this cause on Instagram and annoying a lot of people with messages and asking my community of amazing people to contribute by either sharing, donating and talking with their bubbles about it.

The second method was creating a performance art fundraiser event platform. Move4Gazas main focus was to gather funds, speak about awareness, create a community space and show everyone from different groups & beliefs, who are fighting for the cause of Gaza and the people of Palestine, that they are not alone through sharing a space, food and art.

Both methods in total yielded over 10'000€ (around 9'000CHF) in funds from which half has already reached Gazan displaced in Egypt and Rafah.

5'000 is enough to reach about 20 - 30 families (parents with 1-2+ kids).

How it started?

Before all this started I was very frustrated with myself. I am not a doctor, lawyer, engineer, person with political power or any kind of job/situation I felt I needed to be able to help others.

I changed my mind once I saw volunteers who went to Egypt with funds they've collected themselves through their communities on a mission to look for and help Gazans who were/are left stranded in Egypt with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. After seeing that I got inspired to help them out in any way I can.

These volunteers, who reached more than 2'000 cases so far, since then gathered under a grassroot organisation called Safebow created by Rain Dove. They connected a large network with locals in Egypt consisting of allies, Egyptians, Palestinians and Gazans to help newly displaced cases, who arrive in Egypt or are still in Gaza, with additional aid (clothes, shelter etc).

I connected with Kays, one of the volunteers who created this movement. He distributed and documented most of the first half of donations. He is a role model to me in this mission and played a huge part decision making concerning the funds, distribution and solution finding.

Later I was blessed to host Katie one of the amazing volunteers from Safebow who arrived at my place on her way back home from a mission she had in Egypt. We connected immediately. I feel deeply moved ever since hearing about how meeting newly evacuated Gazans and listening to their experiences was like for her. Thanks to Katie I found the last inner building blocks I needed to make the decision to follow in their footsteps.

How do we find the cases and get verified?

The cases come through different means such as:

Necessarily the cases are being double checked for validity by the team through checking of documents (such as passports and displacement documents), multiple questions about form of displacement, whereabouts before October 8th and so on.

What form of aid?

Since most the Gazans were forcibly displaced from secure housing, financial and social positions it makes the most sense to me to give out cash aid inspired by Rain Dove and Kays. We have have used the funds for this form of aid because following reasons:

The aid in envelopes mostly covers rent & food for 1-2 months. In family cases each individual gets their own envelope to refrain from hoarding. In specially severe situations I will give out 2 envelopes.

Kays, Katie and some others of the Safebow team will allocate the cases to me which I will visit.

What are my goals?

...........

Now that you know a bit more about this mission, I ask of you to please share, please donate if possible, please talk with your dear ones about it and with your colleagues at work.

This fundraiser reaching a lot of people, if only for awareness, is helping immensely.

I will be posting updates here or on my Instagram. In my highlights you will find out about distributions that already happened.

At this point here couple disclaimers for transparency:

To lift some spirits and see some faces, here are some impressions

The team that inspired me:

The envelopes with the names and messages of the donors:

Family in Gaza receiving their envelope (sadly the envelope had to be swapped cause they needed to open it at the border)

Group of displaced Gazan children who got taken out of horrible living conditions with 3 Volunteers (their parents are still in Gaza):

Katie, who motivated me to make this mission possible, and me:

Me at the fundraiser event Move4Gaza: