Help Iyass and Nada's Family Get to Safety

Hello,

I first want to thank you for taking time to read our story. My name is Iyass Alharazin (38.) My wife, Nada (31,) and I have three small children. Sama (5,) Ronza (4,) and Jad (3.) For the past 300+ days we have survived unimaginable levels of destruction, grief and pain in our lives.

I want you to know that if it were up to us, we would be working and providing for ourselves. However, since Oct. 7, 2023, there has been no access to consistent internet or working conditions. We are constantly dodging life or death circumstances.

We face barriers to finding work in the Gaza Strip in Palestine as the borders are closed and bombs continue to drop " on May 7, 2024. We have no ability to leave. We are forced to pay high prices for expired food WHEN we can find it. Most meals are canned food, which nutrients are lacking.

If you can connect us to a job, please message our family friend Alisha (beneficiary of this campaign) and she will connect you directly to our family. We are open to video chats on Signal App (when the Internet isn’t disconnected / this is out of our control here.) Or, you can also find our social media profiles below. However, it is not so simple as taking a work-from-home job. We live in a tent now and the internet is sparse. We are seeking employment away from this war zone.

Please understand we wish to find another opportunity to work online in big companies. We have multiple years of professional experience. We are currently jobless but looking for a job. We are ready and willing to work on our field.

Our real-time reality in Gaza as every-day citizens -

Due to the denial of clean water, food and housing, our basic human needs are unmet and worsening every single day we are in Deir Al-Balah, Palestine. Each of us suffers from a medical illness. Our older and very young family members are malnourished and have lost a significant amount of weight.

Due to the lack of electricity and internet access, my wife and I lost our jobs. I was in digital marketing and my wife was a content writer and translator. I led my own team to introduce marketing and digital development managing services for businesses.

After October 7 2023, the clients who worked with Iyass stopped working with his team. They also demanded payments for what they claimed as damages to their business.

I, Iyass, feel I am alone with my family, facing a dark world as death surrounds us every day. My children no longer draw images appropriate for kids but of homes under an airplane dropping bombs.

We dread asking you for money, but as parents, we are doing everything we can to restore our children's’ childhood and get them to safety.

Out of transparency, we managed to raise about $50,000 on GFM with our family friend who is a beneficiary in Belgium. After Belgium taxes, we receive $40,000. $32,000 will be used for fees crossing the border into Egypt. We tried a different platform and fundraised $1,740. We needed to cancel this fundraiser due to multiple platform problems leading to family and friends not having the ability to send us anything from their devices.

We urgently need to get out of the bombing zone and into Egypt. However, there remains no exit. We are stuck here until world leaders decide we are human enough to open the border and let us out.

There is absolutely no safe zone in the Gaza Strip. We have been displaced multiple times and even the refugee camps and hospitals continue to face bombings as of today, Aug. 15, 2024.

FEES

Adult Fees to Cross Border into Egypt: $5,000 (per person)

Kid Fees to Cross Border into Egypt: : $2,500 (per person)

Our family friend in Belgium sent a portion of this amount to us directly to purchase food and clothes. We were forced to spend at least $6,000 in the last four months. You can read The Washington Post, which reported on June 15, that the Rafah crossing closure by Israel leads us to have no way out. We can’t leave, therefore we have to pay the prices demanded by wherever we go. Fresh produce and meat are very expensive and rare.

We plan on using $2,000 (the remaining amount from our GFM page) toward living expenses in Egypt. As soon as the Rafah crossing reopens, we will rush to exit. We plan on living in Egypt and finding work until we can be accepted by the Welcome Corps program.

Breakdown of costs

Why are we creating a new campaign?

Our Belgium friend can no longer manage our campaign due to personal circumstances. Fortunately, we reached out to our close friend Alisha in New York, United States. She agreed to receive the money and directly internationally wire us to our Bank of Palestine. Our hope is restored, once again. Every kind act you give, changes our lives forever. $5 truly DOES help us. That is equivalent to the price of one small plastic water bottle of clean water.

We face multiple illnesses drinking contaminated water. But in the summer, you can imagine we are parched. We need our young children and elder’s to be hydrated. The hospitals are not safe. We are waiting for the border to reopen.

We will need to use money raised from this campaign to also buy more food as we wait. We try to eat as much canned food as possible because it is the cheapest, but our babies are young. They need vegetables and fruits to sustain their young bodies.

Iyass’ mother was supposed to have surgery for a herniated disc before Oct. 7 but the war started and we couldn't go through with it. Hospitals were bombed and there is no safe space to access the mandatory surgery. She is constantly in pain.

The money raised by this campaign will also go toward the treatment of 3-year-old Jad. He is so small. He needs growth hormone injections. Jad is our little hero. He always has positive energy and a beautiful smile, but he needs special care as soon as possible.

In 2023, were on a medical journey in Egypt. Doctors advised us that he required special care, due to his lack of growth hormone. This became clear from the results of an x-ray that examined his bone growth. He also has asthma, and always gets tired when he jumps or runs.

Jad had a nebulizer before Oct 7 to help him breathe properly, but since this pain started 9 months ago, he lost all the proper medicine, even the nebulizer.

So, the reason why we have launched a new campaign is that we lost everything we had, literally, EVERYTHING. We lost our sweet home, we lost our jobs, we ended up living in a small tent. We consider it as a kitchen with a living room and bathroom. We see clearly that there is no life for us here in our homeland anymore, no promising future for our children.

We decided we need to start a new life, a new place where provides us with the basic human rights, we have read about "Welcome Corps" it is a program to help refugees find freedom and security, this will be a hope for us to establish our life, this step needs a financial sponsorship and we need to meet all the conditions and instructions.

The funds of this current campaign will be allocated to:

3-6 month rent and living expenses in the USA while we prepare the immigration documents needed.

Passport and visa fees for immigration to the USA.

Plane tickets to the USA for eight members of my family.

School fees for my three kids.

Starting a new life and saving a family require your generous support and help, hand-in-hand, we can save my family together. We will overcome all the obstacles by your power.

You cannot imagine how difficult a decision this is for us to leave our home. But the beautiful home we worked so hard for is gone forever. We see horrible images every day. Therefore, the decision is clear, we are desperate to get our children and parents to safety.

Due to the collapse of our jobs, all the money we saved throughout our lives was gone. The hope in our children's’ and parents’ eyes kills me, as they expect us to keep them safe. We continue to urgently need your help.

We are a family like you. We had beautiful memories together. All we want is safety. We appreciate everyone who helps. You are giving life to generations of our family to continue on.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification recently reported there is a high risk of famine across the Gaza Strip, as attacks continue and humanitarian aid is restricted. “About 96 percent of the population in the Gaza Strip (2.15M people) face high levels of acute food insecurity through September 2024,” IFSPC reports. “While the whole territory is classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), over 495,000 people (22 percent of the population) are still facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 5). In this phase, households experience an extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities. Another 745,000 people (33 percent) are classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4.)”

Finally, let me tell you more about my beautiful children. Sama, Ronza and Jad are suffering physically and psychologically. One of our babies wakes up in the middle of the night screaming and crying because she's afraid of the loud sound of bombings. The feeling of helplessness is eating us as parents, inside out.

Jad always had a beautiful smile. He was full of energy, playing, jumping and dancing. Today, he is very sick because of polluted water.

Find us on social media

You can find us on social media below. Please say hello and share our story <3

TikTok: @ nada.home2

Instagram: @ nadas_family_

Love,

Iyass and Nada

A note from Alisha Stupp, who is helping Nada and Iyass run this campaign:

Hello everyone, my name is Alisha and I’m a family friend to Iyass and Nada. We are in contact often and can connect anyone with our loved ones. They can tell you first-hand their needs if you need any verification. However, please know this family is one of the most genuine families you will meet. They only want to be able to feed their kids + elder parents and get them to the medical care they all need in Egypt.

I will be accepting these funds on behalf of Iyass and Nada. As you can imagine, their access to resources is limited. I will personally internationally wire money to their bank account with the Bank Of Palestine. I will not be accepting any of this money for myself. There is a $50 transaction fee with my bank to send the wire transfer.

Your help is so incredibly needed. Iyass and Nada are amazing parents. They show such incredible strength every day as they keep their children close. Please understand that even $5 can help. If you cannot donate, can you please share my friends’ story?

Thank you!

Alisha