Help Hussam's Two Little Girls Survive in Gaza

My name is Hussam. I'm a father of two girls — my oldest is 4, and my baby just turned 2.

I never imagined I'd be writing something like this. But here I am, sitting in a tent in Gaza, watching my daughters grow up in conditions no child should ever know. Since October 2023, our lives have been turned completely upside down.

Our home was destroyed. Everything we had — gone. We were displaced and ended up in a tent. That's where we've been living ever since. A tent made of plastic sheets held together with wooden poles and rope. That's what I call home now when I talk to my girls.

WHAT OUR DAYS LOOK LIKE

The nights are still cold — even now with spring arriving, the temperature drops and I can hear my little one crying because she's freezing. I hold her close but I can only do so much. We don't have proper blankets. We don't have heating. We have nothing between us and the cold but thin plastic.

And with spring came something else: insects and worms. They're everywhere now that the flowers are blooming. I spend my nights trying to keep them away from my daughters while they sleep. Imagine watching your 2-year-old scratching her skin all night and not being able to do anything about it.

Food? We eat when we can. Some days we manage to get something from the market, but prices are insane. What used to cost a few shekels now costs ten times more. Most days I have to choose — do we eat today, or do we save what little we have for tomorrow?

Clean water is a luxury. Medicine is almost impossible to find. When one of my girls gets sick, I just have to hope and pray it passes on its own, because there's no doctor to go to and no pharmacy that has anything left.

I LOST MY FATHER

About a year ago, I lost my dad. I'm the oldest son in my family, so now everything falls on me. Taking care of my mother, my siblings, my own wife and daughters — all while living in a tent with no income, no resources, and no idea what tomorrow will bring.

I don't tell you this for sympathy. I tell you because I want you to understand the full picture of what we're facing here.

WHAT YOUR DONATION DOES

Every single dollar goes directly to keeping my family alive:

• $10 buys bread and canned food for a few days
• $25 covers clean drinking water for a week
• $50 gets basic medicine, diapers, and hygiene supplies
• $100 feeds my family for nearly a week at current Gaza prices
• $300 covers a full week of food, water, and essential supplies

I'm not asking for thousands. I'm asking for whatever you can give. Even $5 — it's real money here. It means my girls eat today.

WHY YOU CAN TRUST THIS

I know there are scams out there. I know you've probably seen dozens of campaigns and you're not sure which ones are real. So let me be upfront:

✅ I am #186 on the vetted Gaza fundraiser list by @el-shab-hussein on Tumblr — one of the most trusted verification sources for Palestinian fundraisers.

You can find me on Tumblr: @abo-ataa — I post regular updates about our situation with real photos.

I also have alternative donation links if Chuffed doesn't work for you:

• PayPal Donate: https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=VPRCMU52ZYBLQ
• PayPal Direct: https://paypal.me/rhmahh

IF YOU CAN'T DONATE

That's okay. I understand. Not everyone is in a position to give money. But you CAN help in other ways:

• Share this page with your friends, family, or on social media
• Post about it — even one share can reach someone who's able to help
• Keep us in your thoughts and prayers

Every share matters. Every dollar matters. Every person who takes 30 seconds to read this and pass it along is giving my daughters a better chance at surviving.

Thank you for reading this far. It means more than you know.

From Gaza, with hope,

Hussam