Empower Three Med Students from Gaza to Reclaim Their Dreams

HI! I'm Kaitlin Prest, director of Mermaid Palace and host of The Heart (Radiotopia).

On April 24th 2024 I met three brilliant young people (kids) through friends of friends, in an interview for a series about the atrocities unfolding in Gaza for The Heart.

Listen to their story. Your heart will shatter into a thousand pieces.

On October 7th, Ahmad was in his third year of dental school, only two years left. He was excited to start inviting friends to the school and fixing their teeth.

Hamza was looking forward to graduating med school: he was in his sixth and final year, on his way to becoming an orthopaedic surgeon. He was a volunteer at Al-Shifa before it was obliterated.

Tarneem was in her first week of med school: graduated highschool an honour student, excited to start university.

When they said goodbye to their mother, who is currently in Gaza struggling to survive, she left them with one wish:

"You are just at the beginning of your lives. Go to safety and finish your studies."

Crossing the Rafah border and landing in Cairo, these three young people are suddenly facing being entirely financially independent. They find out that the schools in Egypt require them to start all over again and pay double.

After doing some research, I learned that almost all scholarships for refugees exclude people fleeing from Gaza or the West Bank.

After everything else, this was just TOO MUCH. I thought: we might not be able to stop a genocide, but THIS IS SOMETHING WE CAN FIX.

Ahmad and I decided we would create our own scholarship.

One that you will help create.

The Mermaid Jaber Scholarship Fund will provide these three med students the means to complete their education and start their life.

Help me spare them the administrative hell of being rejected by bank loan applications, figuring out work visas, and re-doing courses at double the price.

A message from the sibs:

"We are Hamza (24 yrs old), Ahmad (21 yrs old), and Tarneem (19 yrs old) Jaber, three resilient siblings who survived the devastating war in Gaza. We met Kaitlin Prest a couple of weeks after we arrived in Cairo from the Rafah border.

We told her our stories, hoping to spread the word about the devastation in the North of Gaza.

We were forced to leave our home after it was destroyed by Israeli missiles. After 180 days of enduring unimaginable hardships, we managed to travel to Egypt, leaving behind

our family and everything we knew.

Now, we are in urgent need of financial support to rebuild our lives and continue our education. With our family still trapped in northern Gaza, we are alone and struggling to become financially independent in a new country where we don’t know anyone but each other. The situation is dire, and we cannot receive any financial assistance from our family due to the war and the loss of everything they owned. We want them to have the means to escape if the opportunity presents itself. Whatever money they have, we want them to keep with them.

Why We Need Your Help:

Your generous contribution can make a significant difference in our lives. By donating, you are helping us achieve our dreams and build a better future despite the immense challenges we face.

Every dollar counts. Please share our story and donate what you can to help us overcome these obstacles and succeed in our educational pursuits.

Thank you for your kindness and support."

From KP and everyone at Mermaid Palace and The Heart:

If you are upset about what’s happening in Gaza but don’t know what to do: do this. All we need is for 150 people to donate a thousand bucks. That’s one not-that-fancy-vacation you could stay home for so that these young students have the support they shouldn’t have needed.

If you feel guilty for not knowing how to do activism: do this. Help them make good on their promise to their mom.

Right the wrong of their displacement by supporting them to have the young adulthood they deserve, and let the world experience the benefit of their immense gifts.