Help Sana & her family

My name is Sana Zaki Shaheen, and I am 42 years old.I got married at the age of 15 and have given birth to 10 children, the eldest of whom is Lina, and the youngest is Mashaal, who is 4 years old. Despite this, I became a grandmother at the age of 35.

I spent my entire life without feeling my own self or identity, without having a sense of being. I lived in extreme poverty and faced social problems. I felt like I was consumed by the challenges of life, only for the war to come and finish what was left of me.

My wish has become as simple as being able to use a clean bathroom or find a clean place to sleep. We crave food but cannot find it. My children look at clothes and food, not realizing that I cannot provide them amid the crippling inflation and the ongoing targeting of every neighborhood in the Gaza Strip.

I feel a deep pain when one of them longs for a toy, and I have to tell them that the occupation has destroyed even the toy stores here. The money we manage to save goes towards buying cheap canned food, which has become extremely expensive at the hands of war profiteers.

Most of my children contracted hepatitis due to eating canned food and the lack of healthy food in Gaza.

My tears kill me when my children ask for clothes, food, and a clean bathroom. In Gaza, there is no life left after we were forced to leave our home, the fate of which we do not know—it may have been targeted by the occupation.

We have no safe place. Today, my seven children and I live in a small tent, and all I hope for is assistance in getting treatment for my six-year-old daughter, Maryam.

Before the war, Maryam suffered a severe injury to her leg and had multiple plates inserted. She needs reconstructive surgery for her foot, which has become deformed from the plates and surgeries she underwent in Gaza. I also need treatment for my son, whose teeth were all broken in his jaw and who needs replacements to be able to eat.

I want to meet my father and mother, who went for treatment. My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer and is currently in Cairo.

Traveling is not an escape from death but a search for life. However, leaving Gaza during the war requires paying a very high price. I want assistance in ensuring that my children receive proper education after Israel destroyed all the schools in Gaza, and in achieving a decent life once the Rafah crossing is reopened. I seek to travel outside Gaza and start anew with my children, and I need help obtaining proper medical treatment, education for them, as well as finding a house and a small project that will enable me to provide an income to support the burdens of life.