Support Waseem Nasser Al-Hindi's Family in Gaza

My name is Chad Williams and I am raising funds for a fellow puppeteer and father Waseem Nasser Al-Hindi. Waseem is a Palestinian theater educator who has been selflessly working with displaced children in Gaza, giving them the tools to help with the psychological trauma of the ongoing conflict.

Waseem has a wife and four daughters, and though they lost their home and most of their belongings as they were forced to flee many times, he continues to search through the rubble of their former cities for anything useful to build puppets and continue his mission of helping children. They are unable to leave Gaza.

This fundraiser is organized through UNIMA Internationale who assembled a team of support people and translators in order to help Waseem and his family survive the crucial next six months. UNIMA is the world's oldest theater organization with national centers in 90 countries.

About Waseem:

"I am Waseem Nasser Ahmed Al-Hindi, a father of four daughters — Jouri (10 years old), Haya (9), Jana (6), and Ansam (3).

I work in the field of psychological support for children in Gaza, using puppets and theatre performances. Before the war, I had a puppet-making workshop with my colleagues. Together, we built puppets, wrote and directed plays, and presented them while conducting psychological support workshops in UNRWA schools for refugees.

When the war began, I lost my home early on, and our puppet-making workshop was destroyed. I built a tent from wood and fabric for my family to live in, and another tent to make puppets and prepare plays. We performed in displacement camps, bringing some joy to the children.

Then, when the bombing intensified again, I fled with my children in the middle of the night. I rented a room in a small house, but soon after, a house across the street was bombed, and our room was damaged. I pulled my family out from under the rubble, all with bruises, fractures, and injuries, and we stayed in the hospital until it was evacuated due to the army’s advance.

Now, I am living in a room inside an old abandoned house in Old Gaza, praying that my children will survive once again.

During the coming week, I will return to look after displaced children in a destroyed school so that I can continue providing them with psychological support. But this time, I will involve my daughters in the workshop — so that they, too, can begin to forget the bodies and blood they have seen so recently."

How the funds will be used:

This fundraiser is solely to help Waseem and his family with food and basic resources. The cost of living in Gaza is extremely high as basic daily needs are growing harder to come by every day.

From Waseem:

"The cost of living, especially food and water, has become unbelievably high. I’ll tell you today’s prices, but they go up every single day, especially now that Gaza is completely closed off and nothing is allowed to enter. As supplies decrease, prices keep rising daily until things disappear entirely.

When that happens, we’ll be left searching for tree leaves and animal feed to make bread from as we did before . God willing, we won’t reach that stage, and may it never happen again."

Here are the current prices:

(1 dollar $ equals 3.5 shekels)

• 1 kg of flour → 20 shekels / $6.11 USD

• 1 kg of lentils → 15 shekels / $4.58 USD

• 1 kg of rice → 18 shekels / $5.50 USD

• Small can of tuna → 18 shekels / $5.50 USD

• 1 kg of sugar → 15 shekels / $4.58 USD

• Small can of fava beans → 10 shekels / $3.06 USD

• Small can of hummus → 8 shekels / $6.11 USD

• 1 kg of pasta → 20 shekels / $2.44 USD

• Less than 1 liter of oil (750 g) → 45 shekels / $13.75 USD

• Packet of biscuits → 10 shekels / $3.06 USD

• 1 kg of onions → 200 shekels / $6.1.11 USD

• 1 kg of eggplants → 100 shekels / $30.55 USD

• One head of garlic → 15 shekels / $4.58 USD

"These are almost the only items still available in the markets here."

How Waseem will receive the donations

The goal right now is to help Waseem and his family survive. The collected donations will be transferred to an UNIMA Internationale member close to Gaza who can send the funds the rest of the way.

Thank you.