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My name is Maha Harb, I’m 39 years old and a mother of four children.
I live in Gaza with my family of six. Our lives have become unrecognizable—shattered by constant bombardment, suffocating siege, hunger, and repeated displacement.
We’ve been forced to flee our home multiple times, each time not knowing if we’d ever return or if our house would even be standing. During the last displacement, we were trapped in a single room for 14 days during Ramadan, without electricity, water, or food. We fasted with nothing to break our fast—not even a sip of water. The sounds of airstrikes filled the sky day and night, shaking the walls and our hearts. Smoke crept through the windows, the air thick with fire and fear, and my children trembled in terror.
Despite all this, my children still had dreams. They started a YouTube channel called “Sama and Layan Stars”, trying to spread joy through simple content. But even that little dream was taken from them. During the filming of their very first video—a spicy noodle challenge—a missile struck nearby. Since then, we haven’t been able to continue. There’s no power, no internet, and no safe space to film or live.
My husband lost his only source of income when our small business warehouse was destroyed by fire during an airstrike. Everything was lost. Now, we have no job, no home fit to live in, and no way to provide for our children. We are living in temporary shelter, crowded and cold. Our home suffered major damage—it’s no longer safe.
Some days, we have no food at all. My children go to sleep hungry, crying themselves into silence. We try to comfort them, but what can we say when even bread is beyond reach?
Gaza today is a city of ruins, filled with widows, orphans, and the hungry. There’s no infrastructure, no medicine, no clean water, no schools, no jobs, and no future. We are not living—we are merely trying to survive.
So I speak to you now, from the depths of desperation: Please help us live. Help us bring back our children’s dreams. Help us feed them, shelter them, care for them. We don’t want much—only the basic right to live with dignity.
Every contribution, every act of kindness, every share of this message could save an entire family from starvation and despair.
– Maha, from the heart of devastated Gaza
We urgently need €20,000 to secure our basic needs and gradually return to life.
This amount will help my family:
Access food and clean water, which we’ve been deprived of for weeks.
Find safe shelter, as large parts of our home have been damaged.
Obtain medical care and basic health supplies for my children after months of displacement and malnutrition.
Rebuild and resume our work through our YouTube channel, “Sama & Layan Stars”, which was our small window of hope and a humble source of income.
Purchase essential equipment to start again, such as a camera, a phone, electricity supply, and internet access.
We are not asking for more than the chance to survive with dignity and to revive the simple dreams of our children that were stolen by the war.
Every bit of support from you, no matter how small, makes a huge difference.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your kindness.
– Maha, from war-torn Gaza
Organizer
