Help Sarah and Her Family Evacuate Gaza and Study in Ireland

Education, the oxygen I breathed before the war, is now a far-fetched luxury in war-ravaged Gaza.

My name is Sarah Abu Hweidy, 20, and my journey as an English literature student and performing in English on stage in Gaza has been cut off by the horrific war. Before the chaos of war engulfed my world, I would have been a second-year English major student. I was excited and immersed in acting events and activities at my university and impulsive toward a bright future, but my future became unidentified after the occupation reduced my university to ruins.

Only a few months before the war, I stood proudly on the university big stage in a talent event held annually in my university in Gaza. I delivered an emotional dramatic monologue and represented late Rachel Corrie, an American pro-Palestine advocate killed by Israel in Gaza in 2003.

My parents, brother, sister, and I have been running in a vicious circle of displacement multiple times across the Gaza Strip. We ended up now in a tent in central Gaza where we lack the most basic necessities for a humane normal life. I am at a point where I almost forgot what it is like to have a normal life: electricity, drinking water, food, safety, education, friends, and a home. All of that is nothing but a distant memory to me and to my family. The tent is our new house now and, as you would have smartly guessed, its nylon is not strong enough to protect us from the indiscriminate bombing, shooting, and shrapnel. It does not also protect us from the cold and rain of winter.

The echoes of war have shattered my university and my beloved home, leaving me with nothing but the determination to rebuild what was lost. After being deprived of education for the second year in a row, I applied for the College of Sanctuary Award at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Ireland to pursue my BA studies in English language and literature.

Read more about the scholarship here.

Luckily, I was awarded the scholarship. A glimmer of hope shone in my sky, happiness rushed strongly through my veins, and a voice within me roared: a unique destiny awaits you, Sarah. Seize this opportunity, honor your people abroad, and use your talent to tell the world about Palestine and touch their hearts.

This chance represents not only an opportunity but a lifeline-a chance to breathe life into my aspirations and chart a course towards a brighter tomorrow.

See my full award letter here.

Therefore, I am setting up this campaign to help my family evacuate from Gaza to Egypt once the Rafah crossing into Egypt is open hopefully soon. The Egyptian authorities require each adult from Gaza wanting to get into Egypt to pay 5000 dollars.

The remainder of the money raised will cover issuing my visa, flight ticket and living expenses in Ireland in the first semester. As you can read in my acceptance letter from college, my scholarship covers my tuition fees and provides me with 3000 euroes a year only. I am determined to get a job in Ireland in the second semester after I have settled down.

Please consider supporting my campaign and help me save my family and seek my education in Ireland.

After a year of soul-crushing war in Gaza, you are my only HOPE now for a better future.