Urgent: Please Help My Family rebuild their Home in Gaza

I am Mohammad Abuajwa. I am from Palestine, and I live and study in Germany. I am also one of the luckiest Gazans you will ever meet.

That might sound a little strange, but to give you context, yes, I have lived in that enclosed 360 square kilometers for the better part of my life, developing perspectives and values that starkly differ from people who lived elsewhere. I have indeed lived through four major wars during my time there, the fifth being the horrible genocide. It stands to the fact that I had to leave my home, my neighborhood, and everything else behind, becoming a refugee among a plethora of other people in my city. I also have the pictures to prove how my home was bombed and destroyed, taking with it everything I once held dear, and leaving me with nothing but sour memories for insomniac late nights. Moreover, awe and wonder wash over me every time I realize that I was able to survive long enough and leave through sheer divine intervention, turning what was once my plan to come to Germany for my master’s before the war into an escape route from the on-going systematic slaughter of my people. Yes, my family is still there today, fighting for survival in Deir Al-Balah.

All of that and nevertheless, I consider myself to be one of the luckiest Gazans you will ever meet. Alhamdulillah.

As you might have heard, a ceasefire deal is made, which is enough to be cheerful. However, there is no arguing that wounds will still bleed for a long time before they even begin to coagulate into permanent scars in both flesh and memory. Nevertheless, we will endure and move forward even if the world forgets about us.

I won’t bore you with all the minor details of what I have been through. No, I don’t think it fits this context considering that whatever suffering I endured sits in the shadow of the horrors that others are experiencing right now, so I can only be grateful to God for my circumstances, nothing more. Instead, I am here to discuss the future with you, and to ask for your aid in realizing it.

The last time I talked to my father, he gave me an update on how they were doing. He told me of the expensive prices and how cold it was to sleep in the tent, and while they were faring like everyone else, I could sense anxiety in his voice. It did not go past me, especially when he told me how rough their financial situation would be if things went on like this. I mean, he has to care for my mother and my two younger brothers with so little income that is barely enough to get by from month to month. Not to mention that my family is practically homeless, and only God knows when they will be able to rebuild again, if ever.

Long before that, he said to me: “Please, don’t forget about us, son.” It cut me like a red knife. He would have never said that to me if he was not in desperate need, yet he kept all of his frustration and worries from asking too much of his son who had just left to make something of himself. He did not want me to worry, but his pain was so much that something just escaped, and it was a small, humble request that no father should make to his son. Because no good son would ever forget about his family.

That’s also without mentioning my mother, whose face now seems older by ten years. Or my two little brothers who are struggling just as much. One with his high school studies, and the other who is not living his childhood in bliss like he was supposed to. You see, I cannot begin to describe how this war ruined our lives. Perhaps it is enough to say that it made me, one of the luckiest Gazans, feel powerless in so many ways for so long, and my father asking me not to forget about him, my mom, and my siblings, was an entirely new feeling. I hated it.

But I digress. Right now, I implore you to help me and my family. The funds raised here will be sent to my father Alaa Al-Deen via PayPal, and they will be spent in one of two ways. One is to help my family evacuate Gaza once the borders open and the situation persists. The other way is to help them stand up on their feet again and rebuild their home when the war is over and a new government is appointed in Gaza. In the meantime, the funds will be used to buy necessities like food, clothes, blankets, etc. This is extremely urgent because if they go back to our home in Gaza City, they will need every penny they can find. After all, what is waiting for them is nothing but rubble.

The house with the big red door was where my family lived. Now it's been reduced to this.

Any donation you make, no matter how small, will mean the world to us. It will rebuild our stolen lives and assure us that there is still goodness in this world and that we are not all forgotten and overlooked.

Thank you for reading so far, and may God bless you enough for it to shine upon the people around you.