Dear Friends,

My name is Rawad Abo Ghanem and I am from the Sheik Ejleen neighborhood of Gaza City, in Palestine. If you have followed the history of surfing in the region, you may know me as the first woman to have participated in the Gaza Surf Club back in 2010 when I was 14 years old. My story has been told many times in the media and was the basis of the play Barrel Wave, by the American playwright Naomi Wallace. I hope that my story has been able to shine some light on my beautiful home by the sea, which has always given us a great sense of freedom and joy. I have dreamed of a world where I will teach my sons everything about the sea that my father taught me and share with them this beautiful place that we call home.

A lot has happened since those beautiful years: I became the first person in my family to graduate from university, with a degree in English Literature. I met my wonderful husband and now have two beautiful children- Yamen, who is 6 and Mohammed, who was born this year as bombs fell all around us and fighting raged close by.

I am writing this just after the second anniversary of this terrible war, which has destroyed most of Gaza, including most of our neighborhood and all of our homes. Everyone in my family is living in a tent, with no running water, latrines dug into the sand, and nothing but a tarp strung over our cloth tent to protect us from the cold rains of the coming winter.

Despite these hardships, we have thankfully survived the last two years of war. We have done it by constantly moving around Gaza, with only what we could carry on our backs, as the war shifted all around us. We have often gone days without food, months without medicine, and now years without running water. But most importantly, we have survived thanks to the generosity of our supporters who have donated to our fundraiser, which has provided a reliable stipend that has not only kept us alive, but has helped us to avoid some of the worst dangers of the war.

I am launching this new fundraiser with the hopes to continue that support, and I pray that you will continue to sustain us during this difficult time. Much of the fighting has ended here in Gaza but the humanitarian situation remains mostly the same. The rebuilding will eventually reach us, but we expect it to take many years. In the meantime, there is no infrastructure, no apartments to rent, no running water and no jobs. Food continues to be extremely expensive, and we must be prepared that the fighting may return at any time. Malnutrition continues to be a problem and medical care is extremely limited and overloaded. Your financial support has allowed me to sustain my children even during the worst periods of scarcity, while the adults all around them have gone hungry.

In addition to your financial support, I welcome any efforts or contacts that you may have that would help us to leave Gaza, at least temporarily. As a mother, I must put the well-being of my children first and they need to live somewhere with schools, hospitals and safety. Truthfully, I have no desire to leave my homeland. But I will return once the rebuilding is underway and I see a future for them here.

In the meantime, your urgent and continued support means so much to me and my family that I cannot put it into words except to say that we are forever thankful for your generosity. To learn more about me, you can follow my story and contact me on Instagram @princess_rawand96 where I try to show a little of our experience of daily life here in Gaza.

If you have questions about this fundraiser, you can contact me or you can also reach out to my good friend Matthew Olsen, who is the host of this fundraiser. Matthew is the founder of the Gaza Surf Club and has been a friend of me and my family for close to 20 years. He would be happy to answer any questions that you may have and is in touch with me directly every day. You can reach him using the contact section on this page.

Thank you so much for your generous support!

Rawand Abo Ghanem