Support Aya's Family in Their Journey to Safety

hello, my name is Youceff, and I'm organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Aya Elsharif, a young woman from Gaza who reached out to me for support via Instagram. We have been in communication via Whatsapp, and as of Tuesday July 9, 2024, she, along with her family, are staying in a tent in Deir al-Balah close to the beach.

Her family is comprised of 8 members, and they are desperately seeking to evacuate the war and genocide in Gaza for Egypt. The current market rate from what I can understand is close to $5,000 to evacuate to Egypt. With 8 family members, Aya and her family are seeking to raise $40,000 to make their exit.

I am facilitating this fundraiser on their behalf, and will be the point of contact for them as things progress. The 8 family members are:

Aya's father: Mohammed Elsharif

Aya's mother: Reem Elsharif

Aya Elsharif

Loay Elsharif

Lama Elsharif

Fatima Elsharif

Youcef Elsharif

Tala Elsharif

Aya's Instagram account is @aya.elsharif1 where she has several posts and stories dating long before October 7, 2023.

Here is Aya's unedited message to the world and fundraiser supporters:

"Hello everyone, I am Aya , I am 20 years old from Gaza. I obtained a diploma in the office and business practice , I wanted to obtain a bachelor’s degree ,but I couldn’t because of the war on Gaza, which has become a barrier to everything.

‏I am the oldest daughter of my family, so all responsibility is on me to live a life without wars and without pain and to complete their education and their lives that have been interrupted.

‏‎‏My family and I were displaced from the northern Gaza Strip after 42 days to Rafah after we were exposed to fear and hunger ,We witnessed the destruction of all the homes, mosques, and schools around us . In the end, our house was bombed, and with it all our dreams, our childhood, and our beautiful memories that we lived in it disappear‏, Because of this we were forced to flee to the south, ‏And now our last stop is the city of Deir al-Balah, where we are now staying in a tent, where we have experienced cold, pain, humiliation, and heat as well, and we are now struggling to obtain food, water, the Internet, and everything that keeps us alive.

‏My sister Lama supposed to introduce her exams and start achieving her dreams, but now she is struggling with disease from wheat allergy, She had a special diet, but she couldn’t adhere to this diet due to the lack of suitable food for her, this led to an increase in her symptoms and her condition became worse day after day, Also my little brothers lost their Immunity because of the lack of healthy food, and as the result of that, they have a Hepatitis many times.

‏Now my sisters fatima and Tala are work to transfer the water under the scorching sun ,despite their age after they had a lot of dreams who were seeking to achieve it. My sister Fatima was drawing on the past and participated in competitions inside the school and she got a several awards and wanted to become a painter and passion with painting but now all this became in the past and my brother Yusuf also helps them to transfer the water and broken the wood to fire and work all the works outside the tent on the flag and in the past he was playing football professionally and participating in the several matches, but this is all in the past, the war has deprived my brothers from living their childhood and realizing their dreams.

‏It has been almost nine months of heavy, difficult and very painful days during which we lost all the beautiful aspects of life, our dreams and our rights to life.

‏‎‏With each passing day, our motivation to go abroad increases, I ask you to help us, so that all the funds generated from this will be used for peaceful purposes to evacuate me and my family(8people) abroad so that we are safe from harm.

‏The evacuation cost is $5,000 per person.

‏‎‏Donate what you can to help us get rid of this suffering and genocide that is taking place in Gaza."

Aya's story is similar to many other Palestinians like her living in Gaza. I understand there are many other fundraisers like this, and that our collective funds are limited, but really, anything helps.

You could give just $1 and share the story to your instagram. It may encourage someone to give $4. Or you could donate $2, and that would encourage someone to give $3 or $8.

If a thousand people each donated just $20, we'd be halfway to our goal. It starts with you.

I am working with two friends who are of Arabic origin like me, and we are working on logistics for when we eventually meet this goal. We may increase the funding to $48,000 in order to give Aya and her family some funds to get started with their new life in Egypt.

$8,000 would provide them with rent and necessities for a month or two, and a budget to start their lives over, cover medical expenses, etc.

We will keep providing periodical updates as we receive them from Aya and the Elsharif family.