Hello friend,

Ahmed and his family desperately need your help. Over the past months we’ve been in close contact with Ahmed, who reached out to us. He is a 19 year old young man who found the courage to ask for help, because he feels responsible for the wellbeing of his large family. Living in a makeshift shelter in Gaza with 6 small children, their situation has been extremely difficult. Since October 7th they’ve had to leave their home and flee from one tent camp to another. Aid is mostly being blocked, which is why there is hardly any food available. The food that is available is extremely expensive. Just to eat, the family’s daily costs are currently over 100 pounds and are likely to increase further. They lack sufficient basic hygiene supplies as well. There is also the urgent need for E-sims for their phones, which make it possible to stay connected to the rest of the world. This is also how Ahmed found us, and has been in contact about his situation ever since.

A previous fundraiser organized by Hanna at the end of January was successful, and helped Ahmed’s family to obtain supplies for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately the situation in Gaza has only become worse, which is why another fundraiser is critical if we want to give Ahmed’s family the best chance of survival. With this fundraiser we are hoping to raise at least £5000. Of this amount, £4500 will go directly to food and other basic necessities for Ahmed’s family. Based on current prices, this should provide them with their basic needs for about 1.5 months. While struggling himself, Ahmed has also expressed a generous desire to help other local families that live in tents. Therefore, £500 will be used to create food packages for other families needing support. Any funds raised beyond the target amount will be distributed between Ahmed’s family and other local families in need.

Please help Ahmed and his family. Any donation, small or big, is very welcome! Even if you donate a small amount, you can make an important difference*:

£10 buys the family a liter of cooking oil

£10 buys the family bread needed for 1 day

£9 buys a kilo of rice

£6 buys a kilo of potatoes

£6 buys a kilo of tomatoes

If you don't have much disposable income, you can still make a difference by choosing to donate the money otherwise spent in the next few weeks on for example magazines, a few beers at the cafe, or coffee to-go, to the family.

You can also help by sharing the link for this campaign or download our flyer (avialable in English £, $, EUR and in Dutch EUR) to share directly with your friends or followers. The more people see the fundraiser, the better chance of reaching the target!

If you have any questions regarding this fundraiser, please take a look at our F.A.Q. below, to check if you can find an answer to your question there. If not, or if you wish to reach out for any other reason, please contact us on Instagram via DM:

Amber Clarissa Hanna

Thank you very much for your support! Although we can’t change the whole world, we CAN make a big difference for a single family.

* Numbers above are an estimation. They are based on recent market prices and fluctuate often.

Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q)

*WHERE CAN I FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT AHMED AND HIS FAMILY?

Ahmed has his own Instagram page, which you can find here. On this page you will see some photos of his family and the area they live in. Additional information and updates about the campaign can be found on the Instagram pages of the organizers of this fundraiser (@enchantedgrovesanctuary , @clarissavdmontanha , @walkinglantern).

* WHERE DOES THE ALZAQ FAMILY LIVE?

They live in the Gaza Strip. They are originally from the Shejaiya village that was next to Jabalia, in Northern Gaza. the entire family was forcefully displaced multiple times, gradually, all the way to Rafah, the Southern Egyptian border during autumn/winter time. In Rafah where they stayed under very crowded difficult conditions for many months. From here with the generous donations of a few people they moved to a different area to be close to their relatives and neighbours, to Deir al-Balah to take shelter there where the conditions are more bearable. (please see these three locations marked on the screenshot of a map below)

* WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE A LARGE DISPOSABLE INCOME?

1 cup of coffee you buy in the UK costs £3. if this week you choose to donate the price of 3 cups of coffee to this family and take coffee with you to work in a hot flask instead or skip the coffee altogether, someone who is at the brink of starvation will be able buy a kilo of rice and eat several hot meals from the price of your cups of coffee.

It may be a magazine, nail polish, a pint of beer or grabbing a sandwich on your way home after work - there are many small luxuries we afford ourselves and we can choose to sacrifice for a week or two and instead channel their costs towards lifesaving support to this family.

By drawing comparisons between what we afford ourselves as indulgences (such as cups of coffee in cafes or drinks in pubs or eating out) and those essential food supplies that are a vital necessity for survival to others, we wish to highlight that most people who live in the West are in the position to donate. And even small amounts add up and can make a difference.

* ARE THERE OTHER WAYS I CAN HELP?

Aside from donating to this fundraiser, you can help make this campaign very successful by sharing it with your friends and followers. It is important to reach as many people as possible! You can send them the link to this campaign directly, or you can share it with your following on your social media channels. We have also created downloadable flyers that you can share with friends and family. The organizers will also share posts about the fundraiser on their pages, which you can easily re-share.

Another great option is to bring attention to the fundraiser in your local community. You can print out a copy and take it to your local mosque, church, youth center, school, or sports club, and start a joint initiative to help. Ideas are for example a collection box at a service desk, an art sale, a sponsored run, or a collection during a religious service. Getting together as a community to offer support to a family in need can be a very connective experience, and has the potential for great results!

If you have any questions or need help with this, feel free to reach out!

* HOW DO I KNOW THIS IS NOT A SCAM?

Your concern is understandable, because unfortunately there are scammers out there. This is why we verified Ahmed’s identity through the following steps:

1) We had a video meeting in which Ahmed showed us around the tent camp in Rafah. He also showed us his very young siblings for whom he reached out for help.

2) Ahmed turned on the location on his phone and shared it with us so we could see he is actually in Gaza.

3) We verified his phone number.

4) Ahmed showed his photographic ID document, so we could see the picture matches with the young man we were speaking to.

* WHAT IS IT LIKE FOR PALESTINIAN PEOPLE TO REACH OUT TO STRANGERS ON INSTAGRAM?

If you are ever contacted by somebody for support, we encourage you to take your time to verify this request. This being said, it is also important to empathize with how difficult it must be both emotionally and practically for the Palestinian people who have the courage to reach out to strangers and ask for help. There have been several blackouts where electricity and internet were cut off by the occupation. This makes it very challenging to even have a charged phone. To access the internet most people use Nomad E-sims (which you can also buy to donate to someone here). Even after obtaining an E-sim, many people need to walk long distances to find a location with reception to connect to their internet. For some people this can mean an over an hour walk. Keep in mind that every person in Gaza is very hungry at the moment, making all these steps even more challenging.

The organisers of this fundraiser trust the voices of the oppressed. We trust that 'people are credible narrators of their own lived experiences' - as Lara Elborno International Lawyer of Palestinian-descent often reminds us.

Thus, if someone reaches out, hopefully you are willing to listen to their stories and see how you can make a difference. People are in need of emotional support, as well as financial support. Since the aid convoys keep being blocked, aid ships turned back and food aid trucks targeted by bombs, we ordinary people who are witnessing this systematic starvation during the genocide in Gaza can make an extraordinary difference in the lives of the members of this Palestinian family from afar.

*WHY SUPPORT ONE FAMILY INSTEAD OF DONATING TO AN ORGANIZATION?

The short answer is: both are needed.

The situation in Gaza is horrific, 1 in 3 people are at risk of starving to death. Many babies and children have already died due to hunger. While there are many trucks with food and other supplies waiting at different borders, most are being actively blocked by the occupation army and few are able to go through. If that isn’t horrible enough as is, the aid deliveries by the trucks that have been allowed to enter sometimes turn into bloodbaths. The Palestinian people who attempt to get food and water from the trucks get shot by the Israeli army.

Getting money (and E-sims) to people directly, helps individual families to buy the (very expensive) food that is still available. Especially in areas where little or no aid reaches the people, as is the case in the situation for Ahmed and his family, the only way to keep your family alive is by paying high prices for the goods that are still available. Most people have not been able to generate income themselves for months.

Until sufficient aid is allowed to enter Gaza again, helping individual families is a very important strategy to help keep people alive that don’t have access to it. This is part of the reason why you can currently see many fundraisers for Gaza. Please donate what you can, so that together we can help as many people as possible!

*WHY ARE YOU ORGANIZING THIS FUNDRAISER?

Shortly after October 7th, we; Amber, Hanna and Clarissa each started to investigate and post about the situation in Gaza. All three of us have a strong desire to use our platforms, energy, skills, and privilege to help expose the truth about the ongoing genocide as well as the occupation of Palestine that has been happening for over 75 years. From the start we have donated to various organizations. However, with humanitarian aid being blocked constantly, we saw the importance of finding alternative ways to help. This is how we started to support individual people from Gaza like Ahmed who reached out to us. Noticing each other’s content on Instagram we decided to connect and work together so we can be more effective at supporting people, while at the same time offering each other support.

* ARE THERE ANY OTHER FUNDRAISERS FOR THIS FAMILY?

A smaller fundraiser was organized earlier this year for the Alzaq family by Hanna. The funds raised here have already been spent by the family, which is why we have taken this new initiative.

Some of the family members are hoping to evacuate from Gaza when the opportunity and funds make this a possibility. A fundraiser organized by a separate party is being run for this purpose, and can be found here .