Help Mahmoud and His Family Survive and Rebuild
United States
My name is Mahmoud Abuzubaida, and I have three children: Uday, who is 15 years old, Salma, who is 12, and Hadi, who is 3. My wife’s name is Abeer. In the year 2000, the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out. I was 16 at the time when I was shot in the leg as I was leaving school and heading home. The bullet caused a large hole when it exited from the other side of my foot, severing the nerve controlling my foot’s instep. After five operations to repair the nerve, I was left with a disability in my foot, as I can no longer control it. For several years now, I have experienced severe pain in my foot, which was diagnosed as a tumor that needs to be removed because it is pressing on the nerve. I feel like an electric shock when someone touches my foot. I tried to submit papers to travel to the West Bank or Jerusalem for surgery multiple times, but I was denied by the occupation. Now, I suffer from daily pain, which continues to this day.
I got married in 2008, and since then, I have lived in rented homes, constantly moving with my family from place to place without owning my own home. I worked tirelessly for 14 years to save enough money to buy an apartment so that my family and I could escape the nightmare of renting. Last year, I was finally able to reach an agreement with a contractor to build my home. I gave him a down payment, and the rest was to be paid in installments. Seven months before the war, I received the keys to my apartment, which I saw as a sanctuary for me and my dreams. But those seven months were not enough to familiarize myself with every corner of it. Seven months of a dream that never came true. Now it has become a painful memory, as everything disappeared as if it had never existed. I had to leave before I could even settle in, because the occupation destroyed my house, leveling it to the ground. Since then, my family and I have been moving from place to place, fleeing this nightmare, this death, as there is no safe shelter to protect us from the bombs, missiles, and tank shells. There is nothing to shield my 3-year-old son Hadi, who now suffers and screams at every sound of bombing, to the point where he is sick most of the time from fear, as well as from hunger, dirty water, and the insects that share the tent with us. We have been displaced more than 10 times, and now we are in a tent in the northern part of the central region, near the Netzarim junction, which is a dangerous area, but we are forced to stay because there is nowhere else to go after losing our home.
In 2009, I studied theater and drama and graduated to become a director, drama teacher, and actor. I have worked on many theatrical productions and spent much of my life working with children in theater and drama because I believe that the children of Gaza deserve to smile, play, and be heard, and that we should try to answer their questions. A prime example of this is my son Uday, who at 15 years old has not had the chance to enjoy his childhood like other children around the world, simply because he has lived through seven wars since he was born. Today, Uday sells homemade drinks and detergent to help support the household amid the terrifying and staggering cost of living. My dear daughter Salma also has to line up every day in a very long queue just to buy us a loaf of bread. Despite the difficult circumstances and the daily dangers we face, I still run drama workshops for children, offering them psychological relief, listening to their stories, and playing with them, moving from place to place to support and ease their suffering, even if it’s just with a smile—and I do all this without any financial compensation.
Today, I am calling out to the world, appealing for mercy and support. I appeal to your humanity to help me rebuild my life. Every day we are evacuated; there is no safe place. Bombings continue, and the sounds of warplanes are constant. We are fighting to survive, battling hunger and thirst. We have lost everything. I have lost all my possessions in my destroyed home. I cannot help my family, and it breaks my heart to say this, but please, I need your help to provide food, water, and to pay off the checks for my destroyed home. I must rebuild my house once again.
Travis Dobry
-
$40,000.00
Funding Goal -
$0.00
Funds Raised -
0
Days to go -
Campaign Never Ends
Campaign End Method
Product Description
United States
My name is Mahmoud Abuzubaida, and I have three children: Uday, who is 15 years old, Salma, who is 12, and Hadi, who is 3. My wife’s name is Abeer. In the year 2000, the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out. I was 16 at the time when I was shot in the leg as I was leaving school and heading home. The bullet caused a large hole when it exited from the other side of my foot, severing the nerve controlling my foot’s instep. After five operations to repair the nerve, I was left with a disability in my foot, as I can no longer control it. For several years now, I have experienced severe pain in my foot, which was diagnosed as a tumor that needs to be removed because it is pressing on the nerve. I feel like an electric shock when someone touches my foot. I tried to submit papers to travel to the West Bank or Jerusalem for surgery multiple times, but I was denied by the occupation. Now, I suffer from daily pain, which continues to this day.
I got married in 2008, and since then, I have lived in rented homes, constantly moving with my family from place to place without owning my own home. I worked tirelessly for 14 years to save enough money to buy an apartment so that my family and I could escape the nightmare of renting. Last year, I was finally able to reach an agreement with a contractor to build my home. I gave him a down payment, and the rest was to be paid in installments. Seven months before the war, I received the keys to my apartment, which I saw as a sanctuary for me and my dreams. But those seven months were not enough to familiarize myself with every corner of it. Seven months of a dream that never came true. Now it has become a painful memory, as everything disappeared as if it had never existed. I had to leave before I could even settle in, because the occupation destroyed my house, leveling it to the ground. Since then, my family and I have been moving from place to place, fleeing this nightmare, this death, as there is no safe shelter to protect us from the bombs, missiles, and tank shells. There is nothing to shield my 3-year-old son Hadi, who now suffers and screams at every sound of bombing, to the point where he is sick most of the time from fear, as well as from hunger, dirty water, and the insects that share the tent with us. We have been displaced more than 10 times, and now we are in a tent in the northern part of the central region, near the Netzarim junction, which is a dangerous area, but we are forced to stay because there is nowhere else to go after losing our home.
In 2009, I studied theater and drama and graduated to become a director, drama teacher, and actor. I have worked on many theatrical productions and spent much of my life working with children in theater and drama because I believe that the children of Gaza deserve to smile, play, and be heard, and that we should try to answer their questions. A prime example of this is my son Uday, who at 15 years old has not had the chance to enjoy his childhood like other children around the world, simply because he has lived through seven wars since he was born. Today, Uday sells homemade drinks and detergent to help support the household amid the terrifying and staggering cost of living. My dear daughter Salma also has to line up every day in a very long queue just to buy us a loaf of bread. Despite the difficult circumstances and the daily dangers we face, I still run drama workshops for children, offering them psychological relief, listening to their stories, and playing with them, moving from place to place to support and ease their suffering, even if it’s just with a smile—and I do all this without any financial compensation.
Today, I am calling out to the world, appealing for mercy and support. I appeal to your humanity to help me rebuild my life. Every day we are evacuated; there is no safe place. Bombings continue, and the sounds of warplanes are constant. We are fighting to survive, battling hunger and thirst. We have lost everything. I have lost all my possessions in my destroyed home. I cannot help my family, and it breaks my heart to say this, but please, I need your help to provide food, water, and to pay off the checks for my destroyed home. I must rebuild my house once again.
Travis Dobry
| ID | Name | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1244 | Listing Agent | [email protected] | |
| 1215 | Listing Agent | [email protected] |
