Please help Shemaa and her family evacuate Gaza

Please help my friend and her family evacuate Gaza

My name is Jay and I’m organizing this fundraiser from a place of privilege in Southern California to help start evacuating my incredible friend Shemaa and her family from the worsening conditions in Gaza. Forced from her home in the south, she has traveled back and forth between Rafah and Nuseirat, repeatedly displaced since with nowhere safe to stay. We desperately and urgently need your help to circulate this.

Shemaa was proud to study IT at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City, and just three days before her wedding was planned to happen, her beautiful home was damaged in the first round of bombardment.

Shortly after on her brother’s birthday, his home was bombed, completely destroying it and injuring the entire family. Since then, the homes of Shemaa’s sister and their other family members have also been bulldozed to rubble.

Shemaa has lost many members of her family, and she deserves the opportunity to seek safety with those she still has. Unfortunately, the option of making it through the Rafah crossing into Egypt has grown astronomically more expensive over these last 6 horrific months of genocide. What used to cost approximately $500 per person to cross has since exponentially increased to anywhere between $5,000-$10,000 per person.

To know Shemaa is a privilege. She is a beautiful and steadfast young woman who comes from a family that prioritizes community care. She feeds the displaced starving cats before she feeds herself, she has cared for lost children between bombardments, and has participated in an initiative to make sweet snacks for kids. Meanwhile, her brother continues to help deliver aid to civilians in the north despite being recently injured during an airstrike. Their father makes efforts to bring them sugar and flour when able, and check on them between bombings.

This is a beautiful family who loves life and deserves to live it.

No donation is too small and every share counts. When the funds are raised, I will be transferring them to Shemaa via Western Union. My account is setup and Shemaa has sent me her identifying documents to execute the transfer.

Thank you for your attention, time, and solidarity. None of us are free until Palestine is free. Let’s get Shemaa and her family to safety.