Gaza Fundraiser of the Week: Mohammed and Rima

Can you help this family out?

We’re going to highlight Gaza fundraisers more regularly—probably at least a couple times a month—and we’re starting with Mohammed Abusharekh and his daughter Rima.

It’s worth emphasizing just how terrible things have become in Gaza. It’s not just the famine, as unbearable as that is. The price of the scraps of food and goods that remain available has skyrocketed to unbelievable proportions. A pack of diapers costs $149. A kilogram of sugar costs $106. Staples like bread are all but impossible to find.

What’s more, there is no banking system left to speak of in Gaza. Cash is king right now, but you can’t find an ATM or go to your local branch to get your money out. Instead, people are forced to go to middlemen with access to cash, and they are taking a 40 to 50 percent cut of anything they hand over. To repeat: there are crooks and war profiteers taking nearly half of everyone’s money in Gaza. And that’s before people have to contend with the insane cost of living.

So back to Mohammed. Here’s some of what he has to say:

The war began when my daughter Rima was just three months old. Today, she is two years old, and she has known nothing but war, hunger, and displacement.

She learned to walk in rubble, to cry herself to sleep hungry, and to live without the safety every child deserves.

She recently suffered from severe chest infections, and it was nearly impossible to find proper medication or treatment in Gaza’s collapsed healthcare system.

Our home, once full of life, was turned to rubble.

We used to have stability, meals, hope — today, we have none of that.

We are displaced, living in harsh conditions, and struggling each day just to find clean water and food.

Mohammed is trying to raise 5,000 euros—which will turn into €2,500 after the vultures get their cut. He has so far raised €4.

If you have an extra 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 bucks to spare, consider giving that money to Mohammed. It probably won’t solve the vast majority of his problems, or those of his daughter and his family. But maybe it will help him a little bit. Maybe it will help him to know that he has not reached out to the world and found nobody reaching back.

Give what you can. Click here.

And there will be another fundraiser next week.