Help Haythem and His Family Survive in Gaza

Help Haythem and His Family Evacuate Gaza

Hi everyone,

My name is Tariq. I'm a Palestinian-American based in NY with family and friends in Gaza. I'm fundraising on the behalf of my friend Haytham and his family who, like so many others, have lost so much and are now raising funds to survive.

Haythem's story is a familiar one - Haythem, his wife, and his two daughters, 13-year-old Nirvana and 3-year-old Milad, were forced to flee their home, which was completely destroyed by Israeli attacks. They have lost everything. Their family business, a small sweets shop, was destroyed by Israel's onslaught. Now, Haythem and 9 other members of his family are sheltering in tents wherever they can find shelter with nothing but the terrifying sounds of Israeli fighter jets and tanks. Haythem's eldest daughter, Nirvana, had been studying at the American International School in Gaza before Israel's invasion and hopes to be able to go back to school some day. Haythem's brother Ramez joined them after his wife and children were all killed in an Israeli air strike. Now, Haythem and his family have no choice but to find a way to evacuate to Egypt. In Haythem's words: "the ultimate goal is to escape the spectre of death and search for a glimmer of hope in what remains of our life."

Before and after of the sweets shop:

Our original goal was to raise enough money for Haythem and his family to evacuate to Egypt, a process that had become extremely expensive, costing $5,000-$7,000 per person. But now that Israel has closed Rafah crossing, we're focused on raising money to cover the cost of daily living that has skyrocketed. Any donation, no matter how small, will make a difference.

At this point, I'm sure most of us have seen dozens of fundraisers like these. To many of us Americans, this may sound like yet another far away problem. a tragedy that we just can't do anything about. Gaza may be far away, but it is our duty as Americans do do everything we can to help, whether it's calling our representatives to push for a ceasefire or contributing to fundraisers, because our tax dollars are being used to create this calamity. While contributing to this fundraiser will not fix everything, it is one small step we can take to help Haythem and his family.

Thanks in advance for your support - it truly means the world.

Update from Haythem:

"We have recently had some new developments and I look forward to renewing and activating my campaign and I hope that my friends, whom I am honored to have spoken with in the past period, will help me in publishing the link again so that it reaches the largest number of people around the world..

Unfortunately, my wife and I had our main work terminated due to the war and we had taken out a housing loan to buy an apartment before the war and now after we were forced to resign, our dues for 14 years will go to the bank and are now being held, so we have lost our source of livelihood and will not receive our dues and will not be able to go to our apartment in the northern Gaza Strip due to the Israeli army’s ban..

During the past months, we have suffered from exorbitant and high inflation and unfortunately the money that came to us after that was allocated for expenses and very expensive living costs.

For example, a baby food item currently costs 50 US dollars.. One kilogram of tomatoes, cucumbers and onions costs 35 US dollars. This is an example of our difficult life..

Therefore, the money that we allocated to register the rest of the family to travel, unfortunately after the crossing was closed, was taken to cover expenses and costs The exorbitant cost of living

I look forward to reaching the goal and thus registering the rest of the family members to travel as news is renewed about the imminent reopening of the Rafah crossing..

I hope you will help me spread the campaign and promote it again."