Help make a difference in Haitham & the Juma family’s life.

Hello everyone, I’m Joey from LA. I met my friend Haitham and his family through a collective globally connecting people with people in Gaza. I’m helping the Juma family fundraise to evacuate from Gaza. Please consider donating. Thank you. This is his story:

Hi, my name is Haitham Jumaa, and I am a Palestinian from Gaza. I’m an ambitious student who finished university with excellent grades and was just accepted to the job of my dreams, a teaching assistant in Al-Aqsa University. I had a brilliant future planned where I worked towards supporting my family and continuing in academia, all of which is now lost.

I want to tell you about my family of eight with me being the eldest. My mother Heba is 39 and she loves to knit. Like most mothers, she's burdened with many chronic illnesses such as diabetes and meniscus degeneration in her joints.

My dad Noman is 47 and used to own a supermarket before retiring and relying on his pension as income. Now that this is no longer an option, he’s struggling to make ends meet. Before the war, he was a book warm and had an astonishing library carefully collected throughout the years.

My sister Jumana is 21 and she’s our house nerd! She's fascinated with all things space and finished high school with a grade point of 98.4 and joined the Faculty of Human Medicine at Al-Azhar University. She is now in her third year but can no longer make progress due to the brutal aggression that has destroyed her university hospital.

Nada is 18 and still in high school. She’s also unable to continue her education as most schools are destroyed or constantly targeted. Her goal was to get into dentistry and focus on working with children.

Alaa is 15 and is a high school student as well. She’s a talented painter and took digital design as a hobby.

Muhammad is a 12-year-old primary school student. He’s incredibly talented when it comes to numbers and has won several local math competitions while Bilal (8) is our youngest and the source of all joy in the house. It breaks my heart that he’s not had the chance yet to explore life and have dreams for the future.

Our family home was cozy and had beautiful memories in every corner. The bombing in our street started on November 23rd. We lost my grandparents, my cousin and his 3 children, as well as my uncle and his entire family. We also lost our house and had to flee and took shelter in our second home in Tal al-Sultan in Rafah. Not long after, we were displaced again to Khan Yunis. Again, the bombs shortly started raining and we fled to Mawasi Rafah where we are now.

The bombings are horrifying and bloody, our living conditions are primitive and cruel, and disease is spreading due to water pollution and scarcity. Now that we’re in this unbearable heat, we’re all forced to drink muddy infested water and there are no alternatives. The food is no better as it’s mostly canned and too expensive to afford anyway. As you can imagine, our tent has worn out due to the constant displacement and extreme weather, but I regret to say that we can’t even afford a new one.

Our only hope now is to escape this genocide and salvage what we can for our future. We want to go back once this nightmare ends and rebuild our home. So, I appeal to you to help us do so. None of us is safe here and we feel left to face imminent, slow, and painful death.

(Me after the war and before the war)

Our bags are never unpacked and this cleansing spares nothing and no one. To cross the border to Egypt through the Rafah land crossing, we need $5,000 per person, or $40,000 for an entire family. I know this is a huge amount, but your kindness, no matter how much, will make all the difference in the world to us.

And finally, I want to thank every free spirit supporting Gaza and its people, whether with words, prayers, or money. If this proves anything, it proves that there is still hope in this world.

A final note: funds are being raised to help Haitham and his family evacuate using an Egyptian company named Hala. Thank you again for considering ❤️