Help Nada’s Family Survive Crisis

My name is Maddalena and I am located in the metro New Orleans area in Louisiana, USA. I am raising funds for Nada Hashem Ziad Al-Zaharna and her four family members, currently located in Mawasi, Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. I know this family through Nada's sister Noura, who is a grown woman with her own family to support. I have been corresponding with Noura for several months now, and she asked me if I could create a GoFundMe to aid her sister Nada along with the rest of her birth family. Below is Nada's story. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me @maddalenarae on Instagram.

We are a family of five: myself, Nada Hashem Ziad Al-Zaharna (age 17); Hashem Ziad Yousef Al-Zaharna (my father, age 45); Rehan Fouad Yousef Al-Zaharna (my mother, age 45), Muhammad Hashem Ziad Al-Zaharna (my brother, age 18), and Mahmoud Hashem Ziad Al-Zaharna (my brother, age 11). We had a beautiful life before the war. I was a good student in the eleventh grade. We were living in my childhood home in Gaza when it – along with our dreams – was completely destroyed by warplanes. Now are living the worst days of our lives.

Nada’s introduction video: https://youtube.com/shorts/1B2tRsfVMAM?feature=shared

A glimpse into life before and after this war began: https://youtube.com/shorts/GXrxrv7mwXY?si=yyFalVEgauovddzo

We have been displaced over a dozen times. We never know when we will be displaced again, as the heavy bombing continues in many areas. We are now squeezing into a single tent in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis. The weather is very, very hot and we have few means of relief from it. We also have no protection from biting insects and other pests which can lead to skin infections. Disease spreads quickly due to overcrowding and poor sanitation, with few toilets and showers available for hundreds and even thousands of people.

This difficulty is compounded when suffering from diarrhea, which is widespread across Gaza and has affected our family too. To make things worse, there is also a shortage of medical care. Both of my parents have high blood pressure, and my mother has heart disease, while my father has diabetes and a herniated disc that makes it difficult for him to walk. They are searching for medical treatment, but it is difficult to find – and too expensive.

Our daily life is searching for food and clean water to drink, due to shortages of both; high prices mean we never have enough money to provide for our needs. (It is hard to imagine, but food costs at least 10 times what it used to – sometimes 100 times.) We also constantly search for firewood, because there is a lack of electricity. It takes a lot of effort to gain access to power to charge up our cellphones and connect to the internet.

Some of the difficulties of life in Gaza: https://youtube.com/shorts/ydjOIyZ8NcQ?si=Uxn31Rd7PbG20rzr

Your kind donations, no matter how small or large, will help us to survive despite all of the destruction and shortages of necessities we face. We plan to withdraw the money from the Bank of Palestine and use it to purchase medical treatment for my parents; for food and drink; for clothes; and for a new tent. If possible, funds will also be used to further my education.