HELP MY FRIEND SARAH FLEE THE HORROR OF WAR IN GAZA

My name is Elana, I am a teacher of creative writing based in Los Angeles. I am fundraising for my friend Sarah in Gaza. Sarah was my student in a creative writing workshop I gave in Gaza in 2014. We stayed in touch. Since the beginning of the war we’ve been messaging. Sarah was determined to stay in Gaza. How could she leave her family behind? Now she just cannot take it anymore. I’ll let her speak to you directly.

“PEACE be upon you all,

My name is Sarah Sobhi Abu Qura. I am an English Lit graduate and an ESL teacher born in and residing in Rafah. My husband Mohammad and I have a 4-year-old daughter, Aysel. We are a small happy family. On October 7 our life was turned upside down. I was on my way to school at 6:20 in the morning when things started to roar. The principal closed the gate of the school. I ran back home, worried for my daughter. Luckily she had insisted that day on a special hairstyle my husband couldn’t do, and refused to go to kindergarten. The war began with a ferocity the kind we’d never seen before.

When our neighbors’ house was bombed and our apartment was partially destroyed, we began our journey of evacuations. We knew we could not go back. We evacuated three times. We sheltered with six families in one home, fifteen people in one room. Airstrikes, bombings, drones 24/7—the number of martyrs growing, some whom we knew. And a frenzy search for food and clean water. Even my little Aysel understood that food was scarce. She drew a pizza on a piece of paper and said, "I know Mummy that this is a fake pizza, but war will end and Daddy will bring us a real one.”

The name Aysel means “face of the moon.” Because of this, she has a deep connection to the moon and always looks up at it. Now she doesn’t dare to look at the moon. No one does. Quad captors (drones) are everywhere and could shoot at any moving body, even eyes looking up. My little girl now has brilliant war skills. She can be patient for hunger, thirst, lack of electricity, sleeping under sounds of bombardments, missiles and drones. She wakes up every morning asking: "Did the war stop?" "Do we have a truce?”

We finally decided to evacuate to Egypt. It’s our only way to protect our daughter from the possible ground attack in Rafah by the IDF. We leave behind our families. We hope it’s temporary, and we’ll return to our beloved Gaza.”

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Crossing the Rafah border into Egypt will cost Mohammad and Sarah the coordination fee of $5,000 US for each of them, and $2,500 US for Aysel. An additional $4,500 US will help cover lodging and food expenses in the first few months.

Please contribute as generously as you can.

On behalf of Sarah, Mohammad and Aysel, I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.