Help Aziz and his mother fleeing bombing

Dear Humanity and Compassion friends,

What is happening?

My name is Aziz Sallam (28) and I am from Gaza, Palestine. I am a singer, graphic designer, and chief who has always believed in the pursuit of change through arts, education, and word to challenge the aftermath of the consecutive aggressions on Gaza.

(Me standing on stage singing for the first time in public.)

Since 2019, I have been working to accumulate money by working here and there in many fields in order to get married and to live a normal life. The unexpected happened when a war began on Gaza, causing me to lose everything, even the money I had collected for marriage.

The house in which I lived was demolished, and even my mother’s source of livelihood was bombed. I do not know what we did wrong for all of this to happen to us. Indeed, we have been stranded and no longer have any shelter or source of livelihood.

(Our home that was completely destroyed during the war.)

(My mother's business, through which she lost all the money she has.)

While I was attending to study music in Egypt, focusing on getting a seat was mentally exhausting while my family and I endured the agony of living under constant bombardment and witnessing famine, difficulty accessing “non-potable water,” disease, and lack of medical supplies. The lack of food necessities and protection from widespread diseases as a result of the genocide taking place in the Gaza Strip. I have lost many of my family members and friends and I don't want to lose any more.

(While I was at Music Institute in Gaza preparing to perform a new song.)

How are we doing?

"We lost some weight, ran out of food, and my nephew died from inhaling the gases thrown at us when we were forced to evacuate our home.”

Since the beginning of this awful war, and the bombing of neighborhoods all throughout the Gaza strip, me and my mother have moved from one location to the next, trying to find safety. In the meantime, we have seen so much death and absolute HELL. My mother has shed many tears and I can't bear to see my mother's tears, especially as she suffers from varicose disease.

My mom (52 years old) All her life, my mother suffered from varicose veins, and she worked hard all the time through her own shop to get our own house. Now we no longer have a house or a shop, all of that has been bombed.

It cost us $60,000 to buy our house, in addition to the home furniture, it cost us nearly $30,000. As for the shop, it cost my mom $100,000, and now we don't have a single dollar.

(Me and my mom while we were hiking before the start of the war.)

This war cost us a lot, I lost a lot of weight, I don't sleep normally, I wake up to the sounds of bombing and destruction, and I have had Vitiligo disease because of the intensity of fear and panic at the sounds of close clashes and army vehicles that were VERY close to me.

Glass, the remains of windows, and some fragments fell on our heads, and we quickly fled without taking anything with us. We were forced to evacuate without taking our clothes, without our money, without our possessions, and without any food or drink, we now literally have nothing.

(Pictures of our home before it was completely bombed.)

I did not expect that we reach this situation. My mother and I have now become like homeless people. We even now live in a school containing many displaced people. We are very concerned about the spread of diseases due to the density of the displaced population. Even the place where we live is NOT CLEAN and lacks SANITATION, HEALTH, and HYGIENE STANDARDS.

(A picture of the school where we are currently displaced.)

My mom and I have been displaced several times here and there, and once my mom and I were displaced at one of my siblings' houses, we weren't safe either, my older brother (33 years old), whose house was completely bombed later, and before the house was bombed, all of us forced to evacuate, including our brother, whose newly born son (4 days) died of gases bombs lying on our heads.

(My newly born nephew, Ibrahim, and the fourth day of his birth was not completed.)

Since I am a person who loves arts, literature and languages, in 2013 I started my study and worked on studying English Language and Literature, and I have a Bachelor's degree in this field. I graduated in 2017. Since I love acting, I decided to study theater in In 2019, during this period (2019-2023) I worked in several areas to raise money and get married, Since I have the talent for singing and beautiful voice, in the same year (2023) I decided to study music in Egypt through my private money, but this genocide ruined all the things and made me lose everything.

(My honoring ceremony when I graduated from studying theater.)

I took this photo with my friends who studied theater with me, and behind us there is the building that was bombed during this war, or in another words, the genocide that reaped everything. Two of my friends in this photo died during the war and I am very sad about them.

I had a beautiful childhood, and I wish my little sister's children would live the same as my childhood. I have lived the agony of being trapped under bombing to survive more agressions that I should not have been exposed to in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2020, 2021, 2022 including the current one (2023), but no child like Tawfiq, Mohamed, or Omar deserve to re-live the trauma I witnessed as a child and survive a new one.

(Me and my nephew, Tawfiq, 5 years old, who lived three wars.)

(Me and my nephew, Mohamed, 4 years old, who lived two wars.)

(Me and my nephew, Omar, 3 years old, who lived two wars.)

Why I'm fundraising?

I am starting this fundraising campaign to help me and my mother evacuate to Egypt from Gaza. I have been trying to seek solutions where I can get to safety when all the safe areas in Gaza have been under relentless bombings. However, this requires the coverage of:

• $8500: Cost of travel for each one of us (me, and my mother) to pay for the proper Egyptian authorities to cross the border.

(The co-ordination fee to help us leave across the Egyptian border is paid to the proper Egyptian authorities (Not the illegal agencies). They ask for this sum to put those who flee in difficult times in a record file with names. If that name is put, that sum is usually paid in advance and the family continues on their own find an apartment to rent inside Egypt. However, I share with you the fear of submitting the fate of a family to the unknown or paying an illegal individual who might promise people to horrible journey. I want to assure this is not going to happen and the Egyptian authorities who handle this issue are legal and are officers working on the other side to facilitate this leave.)

• $500: Cost of renting an apartment in Egypt per month for a stay duration of five months.

• $2000: Funds for food and necessities as it will cost $100 per week over the course of 5 months.

• $2000: Funds to buy some clothes, we now only have one or two of alternated clothes that we can change.

• $10000: Funds to complete my study stage in the field of music in Egypt.

As we cannot afford this amount of money, and since I cannot afford this amount of murder, destruction, intense fear and constant slaughter, I decided to do this campaign. Since I am residing in Gaza, I found a way to receive this money through my uncle who resides in the United States. I will transfer this money to his bank account, and he's going to hand them over to me. It is an attempt to help us through your appreciated donations that save our lives and get us out of this dilemma.

I have already lost many of my cousins and friends. I don't want to lose any other members of my family. That's why I am starting this fundraiser as the only light in the dark and the hope in the smoky haze. A new hope for my nephews, like Tawfiq, Mohamed, and Omar, who deserve to live and rejoice while growing up.

(My nephews: Tawfiq, Mohamed, and Omar.)

The impact of your support:

I didn't want to write this story in such timing, but I feel compelled to write this short story feeling responsible for our life and helping us flee to a safe place. With your help (even by donating $10, $20, $25, ...):

• The funds will help us get to safety.

• We will be financially covered to leave from Gaza to Egypt.

• A temporary stay will be provided in Egypt by renting an apartment for 5 months.

• This funding will help me study music in Egypt as long as I wanted it with my own money.

(Me with my artist friends and we were singing at that time.)

The more I reach to at least 2000 people donating $40 each, the more I will be able to reach the final goal of the campaign and get us to safety, but each amount no matter how small will always count and is considered of big impact.

Thank you so much for contributing to saving the life of us escaping death, starting with a new temporary hope in Egypt, and bringing safety to us. Please kindly share this with your network on social media and those you know. I would be very grateful and thankful to all of you.

(A picture of the first operetta I sang with my artist friends, most of them were martyred.)