Help Aya and her family survive and evacuate!

My name is Chloe and I am from California. I am raising money for my friend Aya who lives in Gaza . She is in desperate need of assistance to survive this brutal genōcide. Since the end of the 6 week "ceasefire" The Occupation have blockaded all food, medicine, and access to basic needs like clean water, blankets, and gasoline. They have even cut off fundraising opportunities and ways for Aya to share her story on different platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. The relentless 18 month siege has devastated the economy and Aya's ability to support herself and her family. Even so, she walks many kilometers every day to volunteer with the children as a teacher. The schools have become targets as The Occupation wages a war against the next generation of Palestinians. Even so, she risks her life to help them continue their education.

She hopes that there will be a way to evacuate Gaza soon with her family. We are raising these funds to help them do so and also help them survive the forced famine which has inflated all prices. Aya is kind, creative, funny and unfathomably persevering -- but she needs the support of those outside of Gaza to keep going. Please listen to her story and imagine everything as if it were happening to you and your family. Every donation makes a difference!

Greetings everyone,

I humbly ask you to read our painful story, and from the bottom of my heart, I pray that no one will ever have to endure what we have suffered.

I'm Aya, a 25-year-old talented, ambitious, spirited, and dynamic girl. I live in Gaza in Palestine. I have studied English Education at the Islamic university, and I graduated in 2020 with a very good average.

I have a family consisting of 12 members. I used to have an incredible and luxurious life filled with enjoyment and happiness. In the blink of an eye, I have lost everything, literally everything. I have lost my affectionate brother, my good-hearted sister, and her little child. He was only six years old, and he didn't get to live out his innocent childhood yet. My lovely sister left behind her three orphaned sons. They won't say the word "Mama" forever! Their mother won't hug them again to protect them from this cruel life. Moreover, My father was injured in his legs and I have lost my amazing uncles and relatives, and more than 13 members of my family.

Additionally, I have lost my warm home. The place that kept me safe and housed my lovely memories. It has already been demolished twice because they will not let us live in peace. We rebuild, and they destroy. A vicious cycle, repeated throughout my life and the lives of all Palestinians. We now stay at my brothers flat, praying we will not be displaced again.

Furthermore, we have all lost our jobs. I have worked as an English trainer in an amazing center for three years. I was thrilled with my job. I loved my work. I was teaching adorable students and we were friends. But the center was also destroyed. Now I walk to volunteer with the children at a school set up with tents. It is dangerous work because The Occupiers target children at schools, hoping to inflict the worst horrors and harshest cruelty on our most innocent. You have seen the images, you have heard our screams. Schools, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques...no where is sacred. No where is safe.

All my dreams and aspirations have faded! And I had a lot of fascinating dreams. I was about to study Master's degree and apply for a scholarship in the UK or the USA. But now all I am allowed to hope for is food and safety for my family. We pray for an end to the genocide. I cannot bear to lose anyone else in my family.

These are my loving parents. Words cannot express my gratitude for having them in my life. They have always done their best to give us a good life and support our needs. My father has endured the loss of his son, daughter, grandchild, brother, and nine members of his brother’s family.

Just two days after these deaths, my mother lost her brother and all his sons, wives, and children—a total of eighteen family members. It is an unimaginable, unbelievable, a huge nightmare for me and my family!

This is my youngest brother, Ismail. He is 17 years old and was supposed to be in his final year of high school this year. However, an entire year of his education has been lost. He has lived through six wars, witnessing destruction, death, and the loss of siblings and friends. Boys his age typically have dreams to study, and pursue their interests, but he, like many in Gaza, works hard just to earn some money. Ismail is carrying a heavy burden!! He should be completing his studies abroad to finish high school and begin his university journey, instead of trying to survive our current situation. He is just at the beginning of his life.

This is the most precious thing ever, the family! And the most heartbreaking is losing your family. And the idea of I can't help my family is killing me.

We have been enduring miserable conditions for more than eighteen months: starvation, no salaries, no food, high prices, no clean drinking water, no electricity, and displacement - and the constant death that surrounds us. The buzzing of the planes and drones that torture us psychologically with terror - the reminder that they are always above us, capable of taking away our life and limb. We don't simply die. We are killed in the worst ways imaginable. As the world watches. Please don't simply watch. Help us survive. Help us find safety.

Any donation, no matter how small, means the whole universe to us. You can also help by sharing our story, and we will be extremely grateful and thankful. Your solidarity and support in this hard and challenging time are deeply appreciated.

Thanks abundantly for standing with us.

Sincerely,

Aya

IG: Ayafromgaza