A young family in Gaza in desperate circumstances

Hi, my name is Sue, I live in Scotland, and I want to help raise funds for my friend Nada Alaraj and her family who are currently in desperate circumstances on the Gaza Strip. I got to know Nada well via social media a few years ago, I’ve been helping her with her English as she has been studying to become a teacher. She and her husband Ahmed have 3 beautiful little girls . (The photo shows her eldest, Mesk at nursery) They lived in Gaza City until the war. 3 months in they (along with other members of her family) are going to be evacuated from a school in a refugee camp in the south and have nowhere to go. The situation is increasingly worrying and the only way I can help is to create a small fund for Nada and her family in the hope that it helps make some sort of a life for them once this terrible war is over.

I will keep the fundraiser open and the funds with go fund me, and as soon as it is possible to I will transfer them via my bank to Nada via Western Union.

Please note if circumstances change and I’m no longer able to send to Nada or her family I will donate all funds to the UNRWA.

I really am very grateful to you for reading this and any small contribution you can make. Please note since this fundraiser is for the Middle East it has undergone a review by Gofundme and has passed.

Here is Nada’s story :

My name is Nada Alaraj and I have lived in the Gaza Strip under conditions of occupation since I was born in the 1990s.

We, just like any other defenceless civilians in the world, were surprised and shocked at the events of October 7th. We have no fault with the Israeli people, only with the continued control of our people by the Israeli Government.

They began the war on the afternoon of October 7th, in my beautiful Al-Karama neighbourhood which overlooks the south eastern area of the coast. My husbands family and I were finally forced to leave after 4 years under bombardment. The area was half destroyed.

I was 8 months pregnant at the time and it was difficult to move around in such circumstances. Thank god we were able to reach the Sheikh Radwan area in the middle of the night to stay with relatives.

But then they bombed here too, and threw us scraps of paper wanting us to evacuate again. We made the difficult decision to move south without food or knowing where to go.

We ended up in the Al-Wusta region which we thought was safe but it wasn’t and now huge numbers of people were fleeing from North to South.

We found shelter in a school in a refugee camp and I gave birth to my 3rd daughter Sham, in circumstances that only God knows about.

We cannot reach Rafah because the road is blocked and people risk being killed if they try to use it.

Flour has become so scarce that we are now buying wheat at costly prices and baking it, but it has almost gone from the market. We haven’t had any UNRWA food parcels or flour yet as there isnt enough for everyone, and there are 20 of us together as a family.

Clothes are now expensive and scarce, markets have been bombed and inhabited by sellers monopolising the market.

My daughters scream everyday for food and sweets that we don’t have.

We have to buy bottled water at double price, we drink 2 litres per day between myself, husband and children and we have to drink salty water for the rest of the day.

We need many of the minimum necessities of life, now and in the long term after the war.

If we eventually return to the North we return to destruction and there’s only a 5% chance our house is still standing.

Now we have been told to prepare to evacuate the school shelter and we have nowhere to go. It is horrible.

Please we would be very grateful for any help. Thank you.

Update

The camp where Nada and her family were staying in central Gaza has now been ordered to evacuate. I have not heard from Nada since this but hope to asap and will update accordingly.