Support Reham & her five children in Gaza

Devora Klionsky is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

***Update Feb 2, 2025: While the planes overhead are quiet now, there is still no (free) aid in Nuseirat. It is being intercepted and sold by merchants for crazy prices. The money we send is helping them buy whatever is available in the market -- otherwise they'll go hungry. Just praying with my whole heart that the free aid arrives soon.

***Update January 4, 2025: We are fundraising now for passports for the family of seven! Which means sending $2800 so that after commission and transfer fees there's enough to get each of them one ($200). This is so that when the border opens (and there are rumours it will soon) they will legally be allowed to enter Egypt. Fingers so crossed!

(the kids December 18th, 2024)

Dear friends, family and extended community,

My name is Fiona Picard and I'm from the United States but living in Copenhagen, Denmark with my family and teaching creative writing. I was donating to nonprofits but wanted to directly help a family, so I asked my activist mum to connect me to someone she was in touch with in Gaza. She connected me to Reham Abu Malou Fathi, a mother of five, and we began video calling every day over seven months ago. She and Hamada, her husband, have five children: Mahmoud (9), Malak (8), Ghazal (7), Saba (4) and Razan (2). The family is so sweet and loving. I don't speak much Arabic and they don't speak English so we just blow each other kisses and say "hello" and "I love you so much" in Arabic many times. Reham has become a good friend and I feel as if her family is my family now.

(Malak, Saba, Ghazal and Razan)

(Razan blowing a kiss on a video call)

Their home in Nuseirat was bombed in October, but they were in the garden and survived. They lived in a school shelter in Nuseirat for four months (which was bombed yesterday) before going down to a camp in Rafah where there was aid (they shared one aid meal between the seven of them). Then the Rafah invasion happened, and they traveled back up north to Nuseirat and are now living in their bombed home.

(Malak, Ghazal and Saba in their house weeks before it was bombed)

Reham's husband, Hamada, is a fisherman but the IDF is stationed along the coast so he can't go to the sea to fish. There is no aid in Nuseirat, and the cost of food and supplies are absolutely bananas / rising every day because of the limited supply. I've been fundraising for Reham within my personal circles for the past months, and have found reliable ways of sending the money. I bank transfer a friend who is in Egypt, and then he uses Vodaphone Cash to send it to Reham.

(Reham in Deir al Balah, where her mother, father and extended family are living in a tent)

(The school was bombed on July 16 while Mahmoud was there playing with a friend. Hamada ran to the school and found Mahmoud hiding in a classroom. His friend was killed, and Hamada pulled the children martyrs out of the school rubble. This photo was taken when Hamada and Mahmoud came home. Whenever we video call Hamada is playing and trying to make the children laugh, and tells them that the sound of the drones and the bombs are things like giants stomping around, or it's the biggest wedding in all of Gaza, etc. He has vitiligo, an autoimmune disorder that turns the skin pigmentation white. It used to just be a few small patches but stress from the past months has accelerated it to the point where most of his body has lost its pigment).

With the money we send Reham, she feeds her family and the families and orphans around her (25,000+ kids have been orphaned since October). With the last amount we sent, she bought antibiotics for Razan, her two-year old, who had a bacterial infection from contaminated water. She also bought flour to make pita bread for the family and those around her, and bought eggs, vegetables, and shelf stable items like chickpeas, oil, and lentils.

(Shelf stable goods)

(Medicine for Razan...who is now feeling better thank god!)

(Flour...which is more than $200 a bag and going up daily)

(Reham making bread)

(Distributing it to families in Nuseirat)

Reham has lost three brothers and aunts and uncles since October. Her 16-year-old nephew in her care was paralyzed from the neck down in the airstrike that killed his father and mother. Her sister had a baby a few weeks ago who got pneumonia, but the money we sent was able to pay for her treatment. All of Reham's children have or have had Hepatitis A, skin rashes, and bacterial infections from the contaminated water. Reham has to walk with her young children past bodies on the street. We are the same age--29--and both mothers. I can't imagine the extent of heartbreak and grief she must feel, how painful it would be to see your children being traumatized daily. And yet she wakes up and takes care of everyone around her and never complains even though her world is burning.

(On a video call recently)

Without our support, they would be going hungry as so many families are right now. There are no aid workers and no aid meals going into Nuseirat right now. Sending money is the most effective thing we can do right now to make sure they are fed and surviving.

(Several months ago in Rafah before the invasion when they still had access to things like printers)

Whatever you give will go a long way. You could donate what you'd spend on groceries for a day or a week or a month or a year--anything you send will make an immediate, direct and tangible impact on their lives.