Help Mona and her family survive in Northern Gaza

Hi, my name is Amber Massie-Blomfield - I'm a theatre producer from Brixton in London - and I am fundraising to help my friend Mona Abed and her family in Northern Gaza.

Mona

Mona is 17 years old. When the current crisis in Gaza started, she was a hard-working student, committed to her studies and excited about her future as a computer engineer. Those days now seem like another lifetime. Since October, she and her family have been displaced five times; for a period, they were forced to eat animal feed, due to the lack of availability of food.

Now, she is living with her family - her father Mohammed (41), mother Inas (38) and brothers Hala (15), Hamza (12), Yazan (6). They are staying in the home of a relative that has been partially destroyed by bombing and is exposed to the elements, in the Jabalia camp in Northern Gaza. All of them are suffering from malnutrition due to the huge challenges they have getting enough to eat. There is no work available so her father is unemployed. Each day, they must travel a long way to fetch water in unsanitary conditions, back-breaking work for people with little physical energy due to their starvation.

The semi-ruined building where Mona and her family are living.

In spite of all the hardships they face, Mona and her family are so inspiring for the way they stay strong together, looking after each other and to the future, when they hope for peace and stability to return so they continue their lives. Mona's dream is to go to university to continue her studies, and I dearly hope one day she will achieve her passion of being a computer engineer.

The family desperately needs money to survive. The costs of basic food and essentials in Northern Gaza are huge. For example:

A bag of flour is $5

A packet of pasta is $7

A kilo of chickpeas is $7

800 grams of milk is $16

A kilo of sugar is $20

A bottle of shampoo is $35

Vitamins for a month are $70

Three cups of water a day is $90 for the month

Vegetables and eggs are particularly expensive:

An onion is $30

A cucumber is $7

4 figs are $5

A single egg is $4

We estimate we need to raise around $1000 per month to cover the very basic expenses for Mona and her family. Anything you can contribute, large or small, will be received with enormous gratitude, and sent to them right away (we have successfully tested a way to get money into the country via Western Union).

I am sure that many of you, like me, will have been watching news stories from Gaza with true horror. I am trying to help Mona as a really simple, practical thing I am able to do right now as a small gesture of healing, and I dearly hope that you will join me in doing so.

With enormous gratitude - from me, and Mona.

Mona in Gaza

Fetching water.