Save A Family’s Life in Gaza

I am Abdalrahim Alfarra, also known as Abood Alfarra for easy pronunciation. I used to live in a small house in Khanyounis in the Southern Gaza Strip! This beautiful house was bombed and burnt to ashes after it was targeted many times by the Israeli warplanes! So, now I am officially homeless! I live in a tent in the Mawasi of Khanyounis. I am married and I only have one son! I had a million of debates with my wife to bring a sibling to our son, but we still think that is still not fair and we decide that we still have to wait! I used to have a decent life with a simple job and everything was pretty much good. After 7th of October, I lost many friends, family members, my job, my house, and everything. My life became miserable, hopeless and dark. From a beautiful simple house, I was forced to live in a small terrible tent with my parents, brother, wife and son! We, literally, use a piece of rag as a wall to separate us when sleeping for privacy purposes!

I used to be a skillful filmmaker and photographer. I had 2 cameras and other filmmaking equipment which were all gone and burnt with the house! This career did not make me much money, but it helped me to survive and provide food and shelter to my family. Now as I lost my job, my life turned upside down. I don’t have any source of income and I sometimes feel this might be the end of my future. On my worst nightmares, I’ve never imagined my life becoming like this! Everything I worked on and built throughout my entire life, has just gone in a blink of an eye!

I have always wanted to lose some weight, but I’ve never had enough will to do it! This war gave me a great lesson. It showed me that anything you want and dream of achieving is actually possible and the results will be satisfying and beautiful, but the whole process will be the ugliest thing you can ever imagine! I lost more than 20 Kgs of my weight since the beginning of the war and it was never my choice! We spent long months without appropriate food. We went through many health and mental problems. We lived through a lot of tragic, shocking and traumatic moments. The fear we lived 24/7. All of that played a role on losing a huge amount of weight! Mainly it was because of the lack of food. I wanted always to lose weight, but when it happened it caused me so much pain to the extent that I didn’t like it at all. Maybe losing weight was the only thing good about this war, but I sleep everyday dreaming of having even a single bite of a tasty chocolate... That has been for a while the last thing I think about.

My parents, siblings, wife and son all depend on me to provide them with food, shelter, and all the life necessities. My dad is old and he is not physically able to work, especially that our life in Gaza only offers hard works to make some money! My son is almost 3-years-old. So, there is no one but me who should be able to work for the sake of helping the family to survive. I honestly tried everything possible to help my family stay alive so far! I fought and endured so much pain. I got involved in works I have never imagined myself doing… Humiliating jobs, so to speak! Sadly, these jobs gave me nothing but pain and sorrow for what I was and what I became! Over all, they barely helped me earn money to survive.

I have always been dreaming of having any decent job or a small business of my own. I made million of appeals across the social media platforms, but they’ve always received low engagements and were barely seen. I was told that doing a fundraiser might help on raising some funds, but this has never been my goal. I want something to save my family’s future. We went through a lot and I want to put an end to this madness. I decided finally that, if I managed ever to raise any amount of money, I will use it to start a small business. A business that should save many lives! A business that will help me provide food and shelter for my family! A business that can help me in the future rebuild my destroyed house! A business that can bring a better future for my family!

That is why I decided to launch this fundraiser. Raising money to start a business through which I can help my family to survive here in Gaza. I really hope this fundraiser will pave the way to me to start the business.

So, if you are wondering what this business will be? I am actually thinking of a small grocery. I can’t think of anything better. We live on a war zone and whenever we need to move to another area, the products of a grocery are the easiest to carry with us!

Trust that! Any donation you will make will be a life-saving for me and my family! I mean it! Anything will help, even 1$. This will, literally, mean the whole universe to us and we will be forever GRATEFUL!! I just can’t keep watching my family struggle anymore. You are our ONLY hope to survive here in Gaza.

If you can’t support financially, spreading the word will be highly appreciated!

If you also have a job to offer or know someone who is interesting in any of my skills, please don’t hesitate reaching out to me. [Journalism, Translation, Filmmaking, Reporting, Video Editing, Charity Work, Project Management… I am just a fast learner! Communicate with me if you need anything.]

If you have any suggestions or ideas for us, please communicate with me.

Here’s my WhatsApp number: 00970597770151.

Always make me your first choice whenever you need anything be done in Gaza. This will always be my pleasure.

Finally, if this Fundraiser reached its goal, you will save my life and you will encourage me to do it again and help friends and other poor families in Gaza to start their own business!

Kindest and Warmest Regards,



Abood Alfarra.