Dina and her family need your support

Hodan Warsame is organizing this fundraiser.

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This gofundme is for my friend Dina Dalloul, whom I met as a student in London just before the pandemic. We were studying together to become English language teachers. She's an immensely kind and gentle-hearted person. Dina and her beautiful family desperately need our help-seeking refuge away from the constant bombardment in Gaza. Every penny will go to Dina and her family. Let's rally and do everything we can!

Please read directly what Dina has to say:

I'm Dina, 31, married, a mother to a smart and beautiful two-year-old boy named Zain and will become a mother of two within 6 weeks. I have a master's in linguistics from Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. I've worked as a university lecturer and an English language trainer at the best English language teaching centre in Palestine (photos attached).

“In London. The good old days!”

"Giving the teachers speech at a graduation ceremony we had in September. We had a meaningful life, just before the war broke out!"

“Teacher’s Day”

" My students’ surprise on my last birthday (they know I’m crazy about penguins!)”

Writing this with tears in my eyes, the decision to share my story and write this post asking for help was never easy. 129 days after the genocide, I've decided to leave my homeland, seeking safety with my small family, especially my 32-week unborn child. I’m 8 months pregnant now and since the war broke out over 4 months ago, I had never been able to visit a doctor until a few days ago which was the beginning of my 8th month of pregnancy. During that time, I lived some of the worst days of my life, constantly thinking about the health of my unborn baby. I didn’t know how well she/he was doing. All I knew was that she/he is there kicking all the time as if they’re saying, “Mummy, I’m here! Keep fighting for me!” You might be curious if it’s a She or a He. I’m curious, too! But, unfortunately, the doctor wasn’t able to find out the gender. It was a bit late as the baby is growing up. Anyway, I hope it’s a girl. I have always thought about her name - baby Julia!

Now home is where my son Zain can play safely, free from the fear triggered by the constant sounds of warplanes, explosions and missiles!

”At home, warm and cozy. Now home is gone!"

"Zain’s first swimming experience“

I've decided to escape away to a place where the simple act of finding diapers and milk for my children is not a daunting quest. These days, if you're lucky enough to find diapers or milk, you'll buy them 10 or 11 times more expensive than normal.

I want to escape to where bread and food are available, to where children don’t die from hunger every day. I want my children to live in a clean, healthy environment where Zain doesn't have to suffer for weeks from diarrhea due to poor sanitation and hygiene, and where I don’t have to regret or worry about bringing a new child into this world!

I want to escape to where I can easily find and buy pain and fever medication for my children. I want my second child to come to a world far from death and destruction. Like other children worldwide, my children deserve to live with dignity, not depression, grief and fear!

I keep thinking: “will there be a chance to give birth in good and healthy conditions, considering the current destruction of infrastructure and hospitals? Will there be schools and childcare centers after the war, with many of them already packed with displaced people who lost their homes and many others are already destroyed?” Unfortunately, the answer is most likely “NO!”

Leaving my homeland has never been an easy decision, but I have the right to live a normal life where my husband and I can work, and our children can go to nursery, kindergarten, or school. I want them to know a childhood untouched by the haunting symphony of explosions and missiles. I yearn for a place where their laughter can dance freely without the shadow of fear that looms with each passing day and where innocence is not lost amid the rubbles of broken dreams.

I've experienced displacement four times during the brutal attacks on Gaza, each time filled with fear and the certainty that death is imminent. Can you imagine how, each time, you condense your life into a small bag on your back? How you escape, leaving behind your possessions and memories of a lifetime? Since day 1 of this genocidal war, I had to evacuate my new home, where I had only lived for about eight months before the war, as the doors and windows shattered into tiny pieces due to the bombardment of a nearby house.

“The bombarded house is in the center of the photo. The building where I used to live is on the left”

“The area around our building”

“The same area viewed from a different angle”

"Ramadan decorations in my apartment last year. Ramadan is about 3 weeks away and it doesn’t seem we’re going to spend it in peace!"

Let me tell you about the harshest experience of displacement we had. In one of our evacuations due to the total bombardment of the three top floors in the building we were staying in (photo attached), we had to escape to an olive grove in the central area of the Gaza Strip, where my husband, my son, and I, along with 11 other family members, stayed in a room on this land. Or it can't even be called a room! It’s just part of that farm surrounded with four walls, and with no toilet, too! For a whole week, we slept on the sand under the sky, watching the drones and warplanes flying over us all night long.

“This building was bombarded when we were staying there.”

"Zain and his cousins in an olive grove we stayed in during the war"

This war left us with nothing. I haven't been able to go to work since the first day of the attack, losing my hourly job. My husband also lost his source of income, a shoe store he started six months before the aggression, and that was completely destroyed during the ground invasion in Tal Al-Hawa area in Gaza City (videos attached at the end). We learned over two months ago that the building where our apartment is was partly bombed (photo attached). Since then, we have had no news about the apartment amid the continuous massacres and bombings in Gaza.

“Where home was!”

I share these details of our tragedy to kindly ask you to support and help us leave Gaza to Egypt. Going to Egypt is the first step on our path. Then we can think more clearly about our next destination. However, going to Egypt is not easy, as it requires a significant amount of money for each family member to register for travel, aside from additional expenses to accelerate the process. The only way we can travel now is through Hala Agency, which requires over $ 5000 for an adult and $ 2500 for a child. More than half of the amount raised is allocated to cross the border to Egypt. The rest of the money will be for other expenses including issuing passports, giving birth, living expenses for a few months, and travel expenses to another destination.

Regarding passports, you might be wondering how we will leave Gaza without passports. Well, because of the current circumstances and through Hala Agency, we can leave using our national ID cards, and without having to have a passport. Then on the border, we can get travel documents valid only for one time to get to Egypt. After that, we can issue passports through the Palestinian embassy in Egypt!

We have to leave Gaza within 4 to 6 weeks to be able to give birth in good conditions in Egypt. My expected delivery date is April 10. I’m running out of time, but we can make it with your help.

Please consider donating and/or sharing my story with your family, friends or people you think would help. You can make a difference in our lives