Help Sabri and his family survive in Gaza

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Hello folks,

We are WALK TO FREE.

We are Akram and Eloise, two people walking 500km to raise awareness about the situations for displaced people across the world and we are raising funds to support a friend and his family in Gaza. 

These are our friends words: 

“Long story short, each individual person no longer knows how they will be and what will happen in the next minute, hour, day… The future is inconceivable. We are just spinning around in circles in these places we are landing in, to find water and food, to feed the children in our family, and then the adults. We feel completely humiliated. This is the situation, this is our situation, for every displaced person in Gaza, our story is just one of thousands, and we are all struggling in the most unfathomable ways.”

Since telling us about his situation in Gaza, and having so many friends and family in our communities asking what we should all be doing to help, we felt an urgent need to take action, start a fundraiser and not forget our brothers and sisters in Palestine. 

The money will be going towards a range of items that the family most need to live with dignity including: 

 basic living supplies like water, food, fuel 

 medical supplies 

 tents and housing supplies 

 winter clothes, covers, bedding 

 women’s health products

All the funds made will be sent to him directly to distribute to his family and friends.

Our friend, born and raised in Gaza, is a shop owner who has been living in Algeria since 2012. He is someone who has always been dedicated to his studies and providing for his family. He is a loyal, trustworthy and respected friend; easy going and full of life. 

 He went back to visit his home and family in Gaza for the first time after 9 years at the end of this summer, and now finds himself in an unimaginable situation. 

 He was helping build a house for one of his relatives. This house has since been bombed and flattened by the Israeli Army.

 Back in Algeria, he was earning enough money to send home the majority of income needed for his family in Gaza, but since October 7th, he has had no choice but to sell his shop to help himself and his family survive. He is not able to leave Gaza. He is facing many difficulties as his family rely heavily on him for support. It is only after many days of horrific struggle that he reached out to friends for help. 

 On the first day of the genocide, he and his family of more than 50 people started to walk out of Gaza in what the Israelis and western media called an evacuation, however this word heavily neutralises the violence Gazans are going through as they experience being forced to leave their homes over rubble, dust, ash and bodies of their family and neighbours. 

 They have walked many kilometres since the beginning of October, including the children and elderly, as cars are either destroyed or stuck unable to move through the broken infrastructure. 

Arriving at a church they thought might be a safe place they could sleep in, they were told to keep moving as it had just received a threat that it was going to be bombed.   

 They moved from the church to a shelter, where they found their French-Palestinian neighbours, some alive and some nowhere to be seen. The shelter was then also deemed unsafe so they had to walk towards the unknown, towards the south. 

 The next morning, they walked towards “Deer Alballah”, but there was no space and it was dangerous because it was going to be bombed. 

 Again, they walked further, towards the city of “Khan Younis”. They went from school to school, looking to see if any had space for their family to sit together, but unfortunately they couldn’t find a place there either. 

 The family decided to sit temporarily with a close family friend until they could find a place for themselves. But after a while searching, still without finding anywhere, they decided they would have to find shelter separately, and continue in the struggle to find water and bread. 

 Leaving “Khan Younis” after receiving the next threat, they walked towards the gates of “Rafah”. 

Over the next week, his family found shelter in different places. Some went to friends houses, some to a school, and some to an area called “Mawassi”. 

 In “Mawassi”, our friend and his family found a space they could set up somewhere to sleep. They found themselves sat in an empty land, of sand and nothingness. With little to work with, he and his relatives built two small rooms out of wood and cloth, split with a curtain down the middle, barely keeping out the winter cold, winds and sand. With no running water, they dug a hole to use as a bathroom. The rooms are for the women and children to sleep in, whilst the men sleep on the ground just outside.

During this journey, he found out from relatives that stayed in Gaza, that his family’s houses, their homes, had been bombed and there is nothing left of them. All their belongings, where they grew up, all the time they put into making a place their home, all gone. They have nothing to return to as everything has been destroyed. What will become of their future, their hopes and dreams? As though all the memories from their homes have been killed. What is going on is like your home being repossessed and demolished. Even if you wanted to go home, it isn’t liveable. All the memories have become a desert of dust and rocks.

All of the people now in Rafah are facing the same problems. There is no clean water, for drinking or for washing. There is no way to make an income, they can’t work or get paid, and it is very difficult for them to access their money. It is winter and there is a lack of warm clothes, most people fled with only what they were wearing. Most days are spent trying to find flour, most of the time they are unable to buy it because since the violence started the war traders have made the prices 10 times higher in order to stay in control of the market. 

 

With Palestine in our hearts, we felt we had to do something, we couldn’t keep going on as usual, watching the atrocities on our phones from a safe, warm place, well-fed and watered, so like the thousands of Gazans walking towards the unknown, we decided to walk somewhere in solidarity. 

 We started walking on Wednesday 10th, December. We walk down roads, from village to city, from hamlet to town, knocking on people’s doors, telling them who we are and why we are walking, sharing our friend’s story and the GoFundMe, and asking for a little bit of food and water. Once the sun goes down and our legs and feet feel tired, we ask where we can find shelter for the night. 

 As a lot of the world continues as usual, living in safety, with some turning a blind eye, many are acting, resisting, boycotting, trying to uncover the truth. By walking in the winter, usually spent at home with the fire or heating on, we are trying to feel a little bit of what thousands of Palestinians are feeling although we know this will be nothing like their suffering, their grief, their daily traumas. The walk is showing us that even by doing this we are so lucky, we can easily access clean water, food, electricity, services, the internet, a toilet and sanitary products. 

 A vision of ours, after participating in Saturday protests, is that some of all the millions of people who are and have been marching each Saturday, will join us in a walk towards Palestine itself, raising funds for people on the ground. 

 On this walk, the idea would be to walk and talk to as many people as you want, ask them about what they think of the Zionist occupation, and have open discussions about it, with no judgement. It is so important to share the Palestinian’s truths, the stories coming out of Gaza, and that at the end of the day, we are all resisting the same thing, that no one should be being killed in wars, no civilian should have to die at the hands of someone in political power.

Join us, walk with us, share stories, help us fundraise for our friend and his wider community.

Love Akram, Eloise and our friend in Gaza x

Update 12/02/2024:

We are still trying to help our friend collect donations for the basic needs of life, including food and healthcare, with the knowledge from him that all the food being distributed by the few aid trucks authorised to enter into Gaza are being hijacked. The very needed items are then sold at unimaginable prices that you wouldn't believe. War traders emerge in disputed areas across the world; Gaza is no exception.

They are now suffering from a bigger tragedy, starvation, with the inability to buy food or healthcare because of the lack of availability which is much greater than it was months ago.

The 1.4 million Palestinians that have been displaced to Rafah, including our dear friend, are now facing the imminent threat of genocide from rockets coming from the sky, as well as facing stampedes and suffocation in numbers with no resources in all areas near Egypt's land border.

They all face great pressure to leave the Gaza area, through the wall, into the Sinai desert.

Only those who have the required documents and money can enter into Egypt, which is more than 5000$ per person, with passport and transit visa fees. This price has continued to increase due to the large number of people who have had no other solution but to get out of this great impasse in the hope of another life behind the walls of the Egyptian border.

Whoever cannot provide the required amount are facing inevitable death, our friend has no other way than this crowdfunding to provide an escape route for all members of his family, to be able to take them to Egypt, and then to any country that accepts them as refugees.

That is why we are now asking all of you reading and listening to Palestinians to please donate as much as you can and to share with friends and family. Thank you to all that have done so far ❤️

Free Palestine