Provide food, clean water, and safety for our family in Gaza

Update: The situation in Gaza is beyond what you can imagine. We are working and successfully selling sweets day and night to cover our basic daily needs. But our only option for safety is to evacuate to Egypt, once the border opens. Details on evacuation costs are listed below, based on the prices from Ya Hala Company (border company from Egypt) earlier this year.

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We are a family of bakers. Our grandfather, Ramadan Almzannar, was a simple man. He did not know how to read or write. Despite that, he worked to create a name for himself. He started his first business with a catalog and a small cart, selling sweets of many varieties that he developed himself. It was 1940, before the Nakba. This small sweet cart later became a very large shop in Palestine Square, called Lamzanar Sweets. Lamzanar Sweets was known throughout all of Gaza.

Like many families in Gaza, while growing up, our family lived in a multi-generational home. We all learned to cook from our grandfather, side-by-side in the kitchen together. And of course, he also taught us how to make his famous sweets. When our grandfather passed on from this life, what was one sweet shop became many, as the children of our grandfather opened shops with their own children. This tradition has continued for three generations. Nearly every neighborhood in Gaza had a sweet shop started by one of the Almzannar children or grandchildren, before the war.

Since October 7, 2023, our family has lost a lot. The oldest son of our grandfather, along with all of his children and grandchildren, were lost in a single day when the building they were sheltering in, behind Al-Shifa Hospital, was bombed. Our hearts are heavy with the void this has left. We have lost other loved ones as well. Thankfully our immediate family, the children and grandchildren of Ahmed Ramadan Almzannar, are all still alive and together.

We have been displaced from our homes without income, running water, electricity, or safety, for more than seven months. There are 16 of us sheltering in two tents, including eight young children. Our homes have been bombed and looted. Our shops, destroyed entirely.

We have the clothes on our backs, a few makeshift outdoor cooking tools, and immense gratitude in our hearts that we are still together. But the war continues and we long to create hope for the future, for our children, for the community we love. We gratefully ask for your support as we try to survive this and, God willing, rebuild. We will begin again as our grandfather began: with a catalog of sweets, created with great pride, and a small cart.

We hope to see you on the other side of this. Come visit us.

Love and blessings,

Abdullah and Warda (and kids, Bisan, Ahmed, and Sondos)

Ramadan and Zahra (and kids, Yara, Mira, and Yousuf)

Our simple, happy life, before the war:

Video calls and updates from Gaza, during the war:



p.s. The Almzannar family are my relatives. I live in America. They are all in Gaza.

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$10* provides one meal for one family

$50* provides one day of food for the four families sheltering together

We are hoping to evacuate both families together, but we will evacuate them one at a time if needed. Each family consist of two parents and three children.

Evacuation costs per family:

$10,000 border fee per adult ($20,000 for two parents)

$5,000 border fee per child ($15,000 for all three children)

$1,500 Emergency Processing fee at border (to be placed higher on the waiting list, which can take weeks)