Save the Lives of my Student's Family in Gaza

Hello, everyone. My name is Edwin Morrill and I live in Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A. I am organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Ahmed El-Almi, a software engineer from Gaza who I met through English classes with the Paper Airplanes organization when I volunteered as an English teacher and he was my student. While Ahmed was able to evacuate Gaza through the Rafah Crossing in late February 2024, he had to leave his entire family behind due to the astronomical costs of evacuation. He hoped they would also be able to evacuate, but since the Rafah border was shut down in May, they are stuck in Gaza and struggling to survive. The widespread destruction, disease, and loss of work opportunities have plunged almost everyone into poverty, and we are organizing this fundraiser to support their cost of living. Please read their story in greater detail below.

The funds raised here will be wired directly to Ahmed in Cairo, Egypt, who will send the money to his family living in Khan Younis. With the current costs of food, medicine, and clothing in Gaza, $25,000 will provide enough for about one year. The 21 people we are supporting with these funds are:

Mohammed & Nesreen (Ahmed’s parents)

Islam, Ameen, Hassan, & Yousef (Ahmed’s younger siblings, 16-21 years old)

Heba, Mohammed, Yousef (5 years), & Mariam (2 years) (Ahmed’s sister, her husband, and their children)

Gameel, Zekra, Nesreen (1.5 years) (Ahmed’s brother, his wife, and their child)

Moatsem, Nada, Mohammed (3 years), & Kenan (10 months) (Ahmed’s brother, his wife, and their children)

Hind, Raed, Manal (2), & newborn baby (0) (Ahmed’s sister, her husband, and their children)

Nesreen with Mariam, Yousef, Manal, Kenan, and Mohammed in Khan Younis, March 2024

Their Story:

Nesreen and Mohammed El-Almi relaxing at home, February 2023

Nesreen preparing a meal for her family in Khan Younis, February 2024

Since the start of the aggression in October, the El-Almi family has been displaced 6 times. Mohammed and Nesreen lived with five of their nine children in their family home in Khan Younis. Upon receiving the news that their area would be targeted, Mohammed made the painful decision to split up his family so that if they were bombed, some of the family members could survive. On October 27, their family home was completely destroyed, with Mohammed’s brother and nephew killed in the explosion.

Brothers Hassan and Ahmed painting their beautiful family home around 2012 before its destruction in October 2023

The El-Almi family lost everything besides the clothes on their backs, including all of their father’s savings that were kept in the home. Suddenly, they were homeless, spending a few nights sleeping on the street before relocating to a UNRWA school that had been turned into a makeshift shelter for hundreds of families in Khan Younis. In November, Hind’s three year old son was hit by shrapnel in his head in Khan Younis and died a few days later, causing immense grief for the entire family.

During the violent, deadly January Nasser Hospital siege in Khan Younis, Moatsem, Gameel, and Heba’s homes were also destroyed. A few days later, the El-Almi family made the dangerous trek to Rafah in the south of Gaza strip, where they stayed in their aunt’s home for a few days before it became unsafe to stay in her neighborhood, as well. They were displaced once again into the Rafah desert, where 12 people stayed in a 6-person tent for weeks before returning to Khan Younis in February in fear of a looming attack on Rafah.

Islam, Nesreen, & Heba with the kids in Khan Younis, May 2024

Currently, these family members are all living in Khan Younis, with Ahmed’s parents and most of his siblings’ families living in a tent and Hind’s family sleeping in the remnants of their bombed home. Hind is eight months pregnant at the time of this writing and will be giving birth at the end of July 2024.

Hind, Raed, and their daughter Manal in Khan Younis, March 2024

Multiple members of the family are suffering from illnesses due to the spread of communicable diseases and malnutrition in Gaza. They require medication for a range of conditions including hepatitis, anemia, seizures, shingles, inhalation of white phosphorus smoke, and more. As each month passes without a ceasefire, their health worsens and they struggle to obtain the necessary food, water, and treatments to help them recover.

One of Ahmed’s brothers suffering from shingles, June 2024

Ahmed with his beloved siblings Islam, Hind, and Ameen before the war

Thank you so much for your support. You are helping us to save the lives of people we care deeply about and want to keep safe and healthy. We will keep you updated as we receive news from Ahmed and his family.