<div>​ Urgent Humanitarian Appeal: Help Adel’s Family Survive in Gaza
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<div>​Hello, my name is Adel. I am 43 years old, married, and a father to a grieving family of 8 members currently living under catastrophic conditions in the Gaza Strip.
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<div>​I am writing to you today with a broken heart, yet holding onto a glimmer of hope in your humanity. This brutal, ongoing war has not only destroyed our home and livelihood, but it has also stolen what was most precious to us. In this war, I lost my eldest daughter. She was our hope, our joy, and the light of our home. Her loss has left an unbearable ache in our hearts that time will never heal.
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<div>​Today, as a father, I am fighting every single minute to protect my wife and our remaining seven children. We are facing imminent danger daily and living through harsh displacement with an absolute lack of life’s basic necessities:
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<div>​Shelter &amp; Safety: We are displaced in a place that completely lacks safety and basic human dignity.
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<div>​Food &amp; Clean Water: We face severe shortages, struggling daily to secure clean drinking water and simple meals for the children.
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<div>​Healthcare: There is a total absence of essential medicines, hygiene supplies, and healthcare.
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<div>​How You Can Help:
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<div>Any support you can provide, no matter how small, will be a literal lifeline for my family. Your donations will go directly toward securing food and clean water for my children, providing medical care, and helping us find a safer shelter to protect what is left of my family.
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<div>​Please do not look at us as just numbers. We are a real family suffering and grieving. Kindly support us by donating or sharing our story with the world.
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<div>Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your compassion and solidarity.
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<div>After eight months of war and moving from one place to another and the difficulty of not having income, our savings ran out, and my family and I are going through great financial hardship, also our region has a lack of aid reaching and it has become difficult for us to buy food or even medical supplies. We are not just hoping for a lot. What fills our souls and buys us medicine if needed due to the huge amount of trash everywhere.
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<div><strong>If any of the donations remain after this crisis ends, they will be used to travel abroad. So that my family and I can travel to have a decent life away from this suffering</strong>
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Help us survive

<div>Aseel’s family is stuck in the open air prison of Rafah, Gaza where Israel is forcibly starving, bombing, and shooting at civilian families. To evacuate refugees across the Egyptian border, there is an extremely corrupt system taking advantage of families with no other options to save their lives. To enter Egypt from Gaza they have to pay $5000 family member 16 years and older and $2500 for each of the two young twins. Their only options are to be murdered by Israeli attacks/forced starvation or to raise the money and get into Egypt. Her youngest brother has a heart disease and requires medical treatment. All donations will go toward evacuations, safe housing, medical bills, food, water, and necessities.
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<div>Here are Aseel’s words: “Hello, I am from Gaza. I live in Rafah. I am 19 years old. We are going through the worst days of our lives. We die a hundred times every day. I want to protect my family and evacuate to Egypt. Our family consists of 6 members, my mother, my father, my eldest brother, whose name is Waseem, 17 years old, and we have twin brothers named Muhammad and Helmy, who are 7 years old. My twin brothers cry every day from the sound of bombs and the lack of quality food. All we have left is canned food but it is scarce. My brother, Muhammad Al-Tawam, suffers from heart disease. He had an operation in the occupied territories at Tel Hashemir Hospital. He needs to be examined by a doctor so that we can be reassured about his health, but now there are no doctors to examine him in Gaza because so many wounded people need treatment. We need donations so that we can travel to Egypt for him to see a doctor in a hospital.
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<div>Now I will tell you about myself. My dream since childhood was to become a pediatrician. I am in my first year at university, majoring in pharmaceutical medicine at university. I studied this major for only two weeks when the war came and I could not go to university because everything was destroyed. My plan was to graduate as a pharmacist and then go to Egypt to complete my studies and become a pediatrician. But my dream, my future, and everything was shattered.
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<div>I am writing to you about my story so that you can support me and my family, even if it is just a little. Every dollar is very important to us. Thank you in advance.”
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<div>Please donate to help Aseel and her family make it out of Rafah safely. I fear for them every day and pray this will save them! I am in Boston, MA and will send the money to Aseel immediately!
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Help Aseel’s family survive.

Elsa Kallio

<div>Hei kaikille! (ENGLISH BELOW)
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<div>Olen kirjoittanut ja ohjaamassa pian lyhytelokuvan, joka käsittelee addiktioperheessä kasvamista ja tässä kuviossa kipuilua teini-ikäisen henkilön näkökulmasta.
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<div>Elokuva on itse käsikirjoittamani ja ohjaamani, ja se kuvataan tänä keväänä Berliinissä upean kansainvälisen kuvausryhmän sekä suomalaisten näyttelijöiden kera.
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<div><strong><em>Tarina seuraa 15-vuotiasta Maita hänen viettäessään aurinkoista kesäpäivää, jota kuitenkin varjostaa vastuu ja huoli oman alkoholistivanhempansa hyvinvoinnista.</em></strong>
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<div>Tämä elokuva on minulle syvästi tärkeä, ja olen haaveillut sen ohjaamisesta jo vuosia. Nyt se on vihdoin syntymässä eloon, mutta tässä kohtaa pyydän teiltä vielä nöyrästi apua visiomme toteuttamisen tueksi.
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<div><strong>Miksi tarvitsemme apuasi:</strong>
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<div><em>Asiantuntijoiden mukaan Suomessa noin 20-25 prosenttia lapsista kärsii vanhempien alkoholin ongelmakäytöstä. (lähde: A-klinikkasäätiö)</em>
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<li>Tämä elokuva ei ole pelkkää fiktiota - se maalaa rankan mutta realistisen kuvan laajemmasta kansallisesta ongelmasta, joka koskee monia Suomessa kasvavia lapsia.
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<li>Suomalaisessa mediassa on valtava tarve representaatiolle, jossa huomio on huoltajan/huoltajien addiktion psyykkiset vaikutukset heidän lapsiinsa
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<li>Elokuvan avulla voimme luoda enemmän tilaa keskustelulle ja tarjota toivoa myös muille nuorille, jotka elävät paraikaa samanlaisia todellisuuksia kuin tarinamme päähenkilö
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<div><em>Tukemalla tätä hanketta autat meitä luomaan mediaa, joka voi resonoida lukemattomien päihdeperheissä kasvaneissa henkilöissä ja käynnistää samalla uusia keskusteluita riippuvuuden, trauman ja mielenterveyden ympärille. </em>
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<div><strong>Lahjoituksesi käytetään suoraan tuotantokustannuksiin mukaan lukien tarjoilut, kuvauspaikat, rekvisiitta, laitteet ja jälkituotanto. Jokainen lahjoitus, pieni tai suuri, tuo meidät askeleen lähemmäksi tämän tarinan toteuttamista.</strong>
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<div>Kiitos tuestasi ❦
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<div>Lämpimästi kiittäen,
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<div>Elsa
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<div><a href="https://elsakallio.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nettisivuni</a>
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<div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@elsakallio5439" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">youtube</a>
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<div>_____________________
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<div>Hi everyone!
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<div>I'm proud to share with you my latest project, a short film on the topic of growing up in an addict household and coping with that reality as a teenager. The film is written and will be directed by me, and is to be filmed this spring in Berlin with a beautiful international crew and Finnish cast.
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<div><em>The story follows a 15-year-old through a day in their life, shadowed by the responsibility and worry they feel towards their alcoholic parent.</em>
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<div>This film is deeply important to me and something I've been dreaming of directing for many many years. Now it's slowly becoming a reality, but for this I humbly ask for your support.
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<div><strong>Why We Need Your Help:</strong>
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<div><em>Around 20-25% of children suffer from problematic parental alcohol use in Finland, says experts. (source: </em>A-klinikkasäätiö)
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<li>Making this film is not just about the story—it paints an uncomfortably realistic image of a larger national issue for many kids growing up in Finland.
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<li>There's a huge lack of representation for the mental impact of addiction for children and youth in Finnish media
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<li>With a film like this, we can create more space for discourse around these tough subjects and also offer hope for young people experiencing similar events to the story's protagonist.
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<div><em>By supporting this project, you’re helping us create media that can resonate with countless people who have faced similar challenges, while starting conversations around addiction, generational trauma and mental health. </em>
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<div><strong>Your contribution will go directly toward the production costs, including catering, locations, props, filming, equipment and post-production. Every donation, big or small, will bring us one step closer to bringing this story to life.</strong>
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<div>Thank you for your support ❦
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<div>Love,
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<div>Elsa
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<div><a href="https://elsakallio.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">my website</a>
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<div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@elsakallio5439" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">youtube</a>
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<div><em>Cover picture is a still from Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold</em>
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Elsa Kallio

Elsa Kallio

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