Dear Friend,
This is an urgent time limited appeal. In less than 24 hours our families, friends and supporters have rallied to help us reach our goal of raising funds needed to evacuate the Salim family from Rafah to Egypt. Now help us to raise the remaining funds!
Donate now: www.tinyurl.com/imanappeal
Thank you to everyone who has donated over the last 18 hours to help 29 year old Dr Hashem Salim to evacuate his mother, Iman, younger sister and his wife's parents and siblings from Rafah where they are in terrible physical conditions.
For background, Hashem is a young Palestinian doctor from Gaza who we are supporting in our refugee community at Positive Action In Housing. He has been in the UK since seeking sanctuary here two years ago.
Hashem's family's situation is dire. His mother and sister moved four times since October 2023. Their large family home which they spent thirty years building and rebuilding in Khan Younis was damaged by tank shelling in January. Fortunately the family moved south to Rafah, however bombardment continued and people are constantly terrified, sleeping fully clothed, ready to flee, barely sleeping or eating.
Hashem's mother and sister are staying in an apartment with 100 family members. The evacuation plan is for his mother and sister, and his wife's parents and siblings to leave Gaza through the Rafah border and stay in Egypt while they process their trauma and loss and work out what to do next. They never wished to leave Gaza but that was no longer an option. Hashem's mother and sister are sleeping 25 to one room. You can imagine how this has affected them. They are now starving despite praying for a ceasefire.
Hashem's grandparents are also in Rafah with them. His grandfather can't hear and has developed signs of dementia and is struggling with the lack of food. Sadly, his mother and sister are unable to bring them out of Rafah due to lack of documentation. This is heartbreaking for them as they have literally had to prioritise who should live. Imagine being forced to make such a choice. But they have decided after almost five months of this "war" that they need to save whoever can be saved, especially the children.
A few days ago, the 100 family members decided to return to Khan Younis to live in their damaged homes. Hashem's mother told him she couldn't take any more. They prepared by buying tins of food, and water and a hope that there would be ceasefire before the food ran out.
Unfortunately two days ago there was intense bombardment of their neighbourhood to prevent people returning to their homes and they decided to remain in Rafah.
Things are more urgent now as the family have learnt that "military operations" will take place in Rafah on the first day of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. March 8th.
This appeal is therefore a last resort after all other options ran out. All funds will be used to support the family to evacuate to Egypt and provide accommodation and support once in Egypt, which we describe as Phase 2. All funds will be accounted for and the gofundme page will be updated regularly.
Donate now: www.tinyurl.com/imanappeal
Once we reach the target fundraising goal, Hashem will start the evacuation process on Monday from Rafah to Egypt. So please help him save the lives of his family members.
Please help us reach our goal by tomorrow. We will update you throughout this appeal.
PLEASE donate whatever you can and state your name and leave a messages when you donate to encourage others. (It is not necessary to pay a tip to GoFundMe, just move the slider to zero).
As well as donating please share this appeal with your family friends and colleagues and across social networks .
For a list of other organisations to donate to in Gaza, or to ask any other information, please drop me an email and I will reply directly. But for now, this appeal is specifically to save Hashem's family. As they say if we save one life it's as if we saved all of human kind.
All details of this appeal are verified and checked. should you require any other information please do get in touch,
Best wishes and kind regards,
Robina Qureshi
Positive Action in Housing
Read about our Winter Appeal here.
See our Latest annual review and check us out in the Guardian.
