Carer in need of care - Gazan plea

A note from the organizers, Muni & Ted:

Nima is a mental health nurse, dear friend, and colleague of ours. We hope you’ll read her story directly from her, below. And if you don’t have time or are just ready to give, know that she has dedicated her life to supporting the well-being of trauma survivors. She is now living with her three children in a tent, without access to basic survival needs, and also dealing with the likely return of breast cancer.

Please give as generously as you can to help Nima and her children escape to safety and to get needed medical care. Direct aid is the most meaningful way we can support those fighting to live past constant violence, and we are very appreciative of your support.

Dear Friends,

Thank you for taking a moment to read my story. I am Nima, a mental health nurse and mother of three incredible children: Zahraa (9), Mahmoud (8), and Hawra (7).

Prior to the most recent war, I worked for 18 years as a mental health nurse supporting war survivors in Gaza. More recently, I’ve supported children with cancer, as a way of giving back after my own breast cancer diagnoses kept me away from my children during treatment.

Though life in Gaza has never been easy, my husband and I decided to build our own home, which we moved into three months before this war. We were meant to pay off our home in 12 months, and looked forward with love and ambition to the life we would create there with our family.

All of that changed after October 7, 2023. All of our dreams and our hopes for our children’s future were destroyed when our house was bombed and our car crushed by tanks. In the past eight months, we’ve been displaced from the North to the South and have struggled to get our basic needs met.

We are not able to afford safety for ourselves or for our loved ones. When each day comes and we are still alive, we thank God. At bedtime, I hug my children in a tent. I turn to face them before they fall asleep, so that my face will be the last thing they see if we don’t survive the night. I ask my children to recite prayers with me, so it will be our last work before we die.

The conditions we live in are so difficult, in a tent with nothing protecting us from horrible air and tank strikes. 80 people share the same toilet, and suffer to get drinking and washing water. We struggle to find wood for cooking, and people search the surroundings for material to build tents. We feel heartbroken and humiliated when we’re forced to seek food, blankets, and bedding in times of crazy high market prices or no products at all. We don’t even talk about basics like electricity, communication, cooking gas, medical treatment, or education. . . because they simply do not exist anymore.

In the midst of all this chaos, my lab results prior to the war showed likely recurrence of my breast cancer, and I need to undergo ongoing testing which is no longer available in Gaza.

Our aim is to secure enough support to evacuate ourselves, obtain urgent healthcare, get education for my children, and do our best to rebuild our life and to raise them in safety.

I have nothing as important in my life as my family. Thus I turn to you, dear supporters, with a humble and desperate plea to get evacuated from the ongoing siege and war in Gaza and bring life back to my children, where they can play like other children and dream endlessly.

Your contribution, no matter how small, can make a world of difference. I truly appreciate your help, and I am grateful for your time reading my story.

With Love,

Nima