As you are reading this please imagine it is your own family, that these could be your parents, your children, your siblings who are injured, starving, and fleeing a genocidal war.

My name is Zoe Bredesen. Here’s how I came to know Ashraf, Rafeef, and Rose and their parents, Hamed and Sheikh. I am a 3rd year at UC Santa Cruz, and an advocate for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine and total divestment on the university to governmental level for any aid towards the genocide against Palestinians being turned into refugees on their indigenous homeland. I am also Vietnamese on my mothers side. My family in Vietnam means everything to me, and one of my aunties is married to a Palestinian man. He lives in Vietnam, but much of his family is trapped in the warzone, unable to escape and severely suffering from daily bombings, disease, and famine. I can only imagine the pain he is in, unable to return to his own homeland and rescue his family. Though my Palestinian uncle is not my blood, he is my family, and his family will always be my family.

When I first heard about his cousin Hamed, how his house in Gaza was destroyed and him and his wife and three children were forced to flee the rubble of their home and relocate in Rafah with almost nothing, my heart broke. I wanted nothing more than to see them cross the border safely, but the Egyptian government demands thousands of dollars from refugees with no other means of escape, and none of us had the money to get them across. Then, the I0F attacked Rafah, burning entire refugee camps to a crisp as families slept in their tents, and the border closed. We did not hear from Hamed and Sheikh for weeks, and we feared that they had not survived.

It was a miracle when Hamed reached my uncle with news that they had escaped Rafah and relocated. But not without serious injury. Their daughter is suffering from burns all over her body and needs immediate medical attention. All of their children are malnourished and living off of bread. They go to sleep hungry, tired, heat exhausted, and in fear of death as they fall asleep to the sound of airstrikes in the distance. The love I feel towards Ashraf, Rafeef, and Rose is like they are my own siblings. Not a day goes by where I do not think of them and pray for their safety, and everything I do, I do for them.

Their father, Hamed must walk for miles in a warzone to reach cell service and communicate with us. Sometimes my family and I go a week without hearing from him. Everyday, the genocide death toll rises, and we are doing everything in our power so that they can escape.

The current situation in this genocide is that Gaza’s borders are closed and no one can get out, unless you pay a huge amount of money to save your life and cross the Rafah border into Egypt. Crossing the border costs around thousands of dollars per person, and this amount for a family of 5 just to get into Egypt is impossible to do on their own.

Here is how the money will be spent:

Paying around $4,000 USD to parents Hamed and Sheikh and their three children to get into Egypt safely.

The rest will go towards supporting them with food and housing for a period of time in Egypt and getting their children immediate medical attention.

Asking for your help is the only way my family and I can rescue Hamed's family who I have come to consider like my own blood, and these children’s life and future like my own siblings. Your help gives this family hope. In June, students in the UC Divest Coalition occupied the Chancellor’s building in UCSC to protest UCSC’s investment in providing weapons manufacturing in this genocide. They named the building ARR House in honor of Ashraf, Rafeef, and Rose. This demonstration from the ARR House team has given this family hope that the world has not forgotten them. Beyond honoring these children and this family with activism, we must aid them to escape this genocide that has taken almost everything from them but their lives. Every dollar you can give could save their lives and save the future for Ashraf, Rafeef, and Rose.

Please don’t just read their story and write it off as just another tragedy. I’m here to ask you to take action to prevent more tragedy and help us rescue them from genocide. Please do not just give sympathy, please take action by donating or by sharing this to everyone you know who can help. Take action like this is your own family, your father, mother, your siblings living through this nightmare.