Support Fatma's family evacuate Gaza

Hello, My name is Fatma Ahel, a teenager living in Gaza, fundraising to support my family's evacuation. Here is my story. Please read and consider supporting:

"Are we not permitted to dream of a normal life as well?"

I don't know how to start or how to describe the feelings of losing everything in the blink of an eye, but every word that I write now emanates from the heart and is inspired by truth. We are a family of six members - my parents, Suzen, Nizar, Hammad, and Fatma - living in the Gaza Strip. My father, Ramzy Ahel, is an engineer who has lived his entire life working day and night to provide the best life for us and to educate us well, hoping to be proud when he sees the seeds that he planted growing and leading independent lives. However, he lost everything he built throughout his life at the age of 60 in the October 7th war.

The war damaged our dreams, home, work, and health. For instance, my brother Nizar got engaged on the 5th of October, but immediately had his future put on pause from the outbreak of the war. As for me, I'm a 17-year-old high school student who dreams to become a professional software engineer. I've made great strides towards this goal as a participant in a few US Consulate programs, including Amideast Access Micro Scholarship and Youth Code Gaza.

On the morning of the 7th of October at 6:25 am, I was on my way to school to see my friends and teachers when my life took a breathtaking 180-degree turn. That day would be the last time I would see my neighborhood and home intact. The war makes me feel helpless and fearful of becoming another statistic, a young woman with boundless potential, struggling for the basic necessities of life.

Our evacuation began on October 13th. We left our home in Gaza city, passing through more than five temporary refuges. We're now in Rafah, the south-most city in the small Gaza enclave. Now, we fear the recent attacks on Rafah put our lives in danger, but we have nowhere left to go. We move from place to place seeking safety, but in reality, nowhere is safe. Bombings are everywhere, and we live with the constant anxiety of imminent death. We are also struggling to find simple life necessities like clean water, fire wood, and food. We've already lost many friends and very close relatives. We are not prepared to lose each other. Therefore, we are seeking immediate evacuation.

Our goal is to find safety and have a chance to live a peaceful life away from the ongoing conflict. We long to leave Gaza as we have lost everything due to the devastating circumstances and genocide. Our homes are destroyed, and we have no source of income. We urgently need your support to obtain permits to cross Gaza's borders to any secure location in the world, which is a very costly process. That's why we are seeking financial assistance to fund our journey to Egypt as soon as possible and then search for a safe haven anywhere in the world. We hope to find refuge and rebuild our lives.

I have written these words to implore you to aid us in living a natural, simple, safe life. We urge your help in these hard times. Any donation counts towards our safety. Small acts of kindness can bring big hope. Please share our campaign to spread the word.

Note: I'm unable to receive the donations directly here in Gaza. Thus, my friend and teacher, James Evans, living in the United States will be collecting your donations. You can reach out to him directly with any questions or more information about my family and me.

Here is his LinkedIn profile and a picture together