Help my family rise from the ashes

Hello Everyone,

I am Nour Al Madhoun, 30 years old, a computer engineer from gaza, my husband Momen Al Madhoun 35 years old, a graphic designer. We are two self-made people united by a love of work, ambition, and self-development. We used to work remotely in programming and design. We had a cozy home that we built hand by hand, stone by stone.

I came to you after a whole year of displacement and the harsh suffering we are still living in this genocide in Gaza.

After our many attempts to survive, we actually survived, but it was only the survival of the body, the soul and the psychological health for me, my husband and my two children did not survive! Even the body survived apparently, but it is very weak due to the famine and the suffering in obtaining food and drink.

Ezzdeen my big son was 7 when the war started now he is 8 years old and suffering from huge weight loss because he is very picky in his food, we try to buy him the food he accept but it is hard in our situations, Ameer my little son was 5 and now he is 6, he supposed to be at his first year at school now but what he forced to live is very diffirent!

Today, after more than a year of living under the genocide, losing everything in our lives, I decided to give you a brief of our journey of survival and what we were forced to live through.

Last night in our home

9/10/2023 – the hardest night when the army called us to evacuate our home in 5 minuits, it was midnight so we just carried our sleeping kids and fled the house, leaving everything behind. We couldn't take anything from our house that might help us in the coming days, not even a small souvenir. I locked the door tightly and took the keys, hoping to return in the coming days.

But what was coming was even more difficult! After that night we lost the stability and began the seasons of suffering and insecurity .

We lost our house and had to leave the entire north of gaza!

WHERE DO WE GO!?

13/10/2023, In that day, the Israeli army forced us to evacuate for the second time, but this time was the hardest on our hearts and minds. They forced us to leave the north of Gaza (the place we used to live and the streets we known well) to the south of Gaza with nowhere to go, without any life essentials, and with no people to help us there.

The families splitted between the north and south, nobody knew where can he go!!

Since that day we have been living in a confusion and asking the same question: where do we go?? What is our fault!! What is the fault of our kids?! Where can we find the paece and calmness!!

SERIUSLY I am asking the whole world.. WHERE DO WE GO!!?

The journey of suffering in Khan Yunis - from the beginning until the siege and escape under danger

13/10/2023 – 14/10/2024

After being forced to move from north to the south having no place to go to, some people told us to go to KYTC shelter in Khan Yunis, we did that but we found it full of displaced people but the night was already entered and we can not go to another place.

I will never forget how we spent that night, lying on the grassy ground under the moonlight, watching the devastating missiles being bombed and the lighting lanterns that were turning the darkness of the night into a terrifyingly bright light.

I will never forget that night because I spent the whole night crying.

The Third displacement!

After spending half of the day in that place, we were displaced for the third time to another shelter that was less crowded, but things were very difficult also, but we tried to strengthen ourselves and help the other displaced families and support each other.

We spent 100 full days in that shelter, with all its ups, downs and challenges, until 1/22/2024.

That night we were surprised by a sudden invasion and violent clashes in the area and the place we were in was directly targeted and we miraculously escaped from a certain death.

We fled out of there, escaping on our own to start from scratch again in a new place - Rafah!

Rafah – From offline to online – reconnect with the world!

We arrived in Rafah tired, some relatives hosted us in their cramped tents temporarily, then after a few days some friends helped us find a modest place to shelter us. I was sitting in a single small room with other 3 women and 8 kids-2 of them was infants!-, my husband was with other 4 men in a very small room and all of us were sharing the same kitchen and toilet!

The displacement to Rafah was difficult, I felt as if my soul was leaving my body! After we arranged ourselves in a certain place, we forced to evacuate it and look for a new place amidst the crowds of tired people, then we are forced to adapt again as if nothing had happened.

But in rafah I found that the people are using their phones to call each other and they are still using internet there! Where were all of that when we were in khan younis? We were totally offline and could not contact with any body!

We started to realize where things had come to and that living here had become complicated and even impossible! So we started trying to travel to Egypt but we didn't have the money needed to coordinate and leave Gaza ($15,000).

We tried in every way to leave for the sake of our children but we couldn't! Then in May 2024 Rafah was invaded and the only crossing border was closed. This was a difficult turning point and caused a huge increase in suffering on all levels.

In 11/5/2024 the region we were displaced in rafah was invaded so we forced to evacuate it, 110 days in Rafah were full of hope for salvation from this torment, but they were dispelled by the invasion of the crossing border.

Way to Deir El balah

We arrived in Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip with a lot of fatigue and despair. We spent 48 days there in a very small place with a large number of displaced people, but we could not stay there because of the very high cost of everything you try to get and the severe health hazard due to the crowding of the displaced people.

Then we moved two times to two different places in a small town in middle gaza called Al zawayda town.

During our stay in this area, we suffered from very high prices, scarcity of cleaning materials and food, and now we are suffering from famine!

As the conflict escalates, our access to food, clen water, and basic necessities has dwindled.

We are making bread from flour that is full of worms and weevils, if we have any! We buy flour by the kilo because the price of the bag is very high, and after all the financial drain we have been through, it become very difficult to afford its price!

We obtain the water we drink with great difficulty and it is not clean enough to be suitable for drinking. This has made us all suffer from stomach pains all the time!

Cooking is another struggle with the lack of cooking gas, and if it is available, it is very expensive. We are forced to cook on fire, which is a really difficult challenge and has caused us chest sensitivity and chronic coughing.

Everyday feels like a battle, not just with death surrounding us everywhere, but against hunger and despair.

A whole year of patience on famine and suffering and trying to overcome difficulties and survive, but now we are exhausted and need a help.

What is our goal?

1- The main goal of raising money is helping us find shelter and get our monthly basic necessities.

2- Another goal is to be able to evacuate Gaza if the crossing border opened any day, because we have already lost everything here and we need to have a new start and try to restore our jobs, and this requires that we live in better conditions.

How can you help us?

1- Donating to this campaign will directly be transferred to my family in Gaza, every amount even if you think it is small, will make difference for my family and will be really appreciated.

2- Sharing our campaign with others who can donate or share for our family will be helpful, the more people spread our case, the more likely we are to get the help we need.

I will share with you the today's prices of some stuff in the market:

- Bag of flour costs 320nis which is approximately 90$

- 20 small loaves of ready bread 20nis = 6$

- 1 liter of Frying oil 35nis = 10$

- 1 liter of olive oil 60nis = 17$

- 1 kilogram of rice 30nis = 8$

- 1 kilogram of sugar 45nis = 13$

- 1 kilogram of tomato 50nis = 15$

- 1 kilogram of cooking gas 45nis = 13$

I know that there are compassionate hearts in this world that are not satisfied with what we are going through and are trying to relieve us in every way. I came to you after a whole year in which we lost everything we owned, our work, our home, and our car, without any source of income to help us overcome all this.

I came to you today after all this patience with a heavy heart, asking for help! My family needs your help to survive.

I ask you to show your beautiful hearts for my family, and do whatever you can to help us.

With All Respect and Appreciation.

Note the beneficiaries of this emergency campagin are : 

Momen 24/5/1989

Nour 1/9/1993

Ezzdeen 25/12/2016

Ameer 12/10/2018