A brief note on this fundraiser's organizers: Emma Knisbacher and Kayleigh Frazer are student-activists at Oberlin College who have grown very close to the Al-Najjar family, talking with them daily over video and text. Amid Israel's continuous suppression of aid to Palestinians, giving directly becomes the most effective way for us to send our support 🇵🇸.
Mutual aid projects like ours build trust, empathy, and friendship with the people we work with, allowing us to understand their specific immediate needs and long-term goals in our heart. Unlike larger charities, we don't need to predict or calculate what our friends in Gaza need -- we just listen.
Pictured above (in order): Faisal Al-Najjar, who's 18 and just graduated highschool!! Fawaz, his very kind grandmother who has many health issues, and Faisal's sister Shaimaa who has a degree in English literature and is seeking a master's in Italy.
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February update:
Thanks to support from donors, Faisal and his family were able to rebuild after the recent storms, but doing so was a huge setback to to their goals of recovering from debt imposed by genocide and paying for surgery for Amir. Please continue to support and spread the word <3
Here's a photo of Faisal's adorable, mischievous cousin Islam who lives with the Al-Najjars, and a photo of Faisal showing off his cap and gown in his family's tent:
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Before a violent storm that tore through Khan Younis, my friend Faisal Al-Najjar and his family of eight lived in one tent on a beach in Khan Younis -- following many forced displacements. Even though Faisal is 18, like me, he is the primary provider for his large family, including three young children and his elderly grandmother, Fawaz.
Here's a video of Fawaz, walking through her family's tent before it was destroyed next to a video of their tent the night of the storm.
With support from previous donors, they have since been able to rebuild. Their generosity was hugely impactful, and future donations can give them tools to help them persevere through their current struggles --
Each time I talk to Wafa, Faisal's mother, she tells me that her family is suffering, that they're constantly under attack. She tells me that Faisal dreams of studying abroad to be an engineer or writer, but the borders are all closed. The Al-Najjars have been forced to postpone many urgent needs, including medicine, Amir's surgery, and cooking gas until they can recover from their debt.
Any donation you can make will bring the Al-Najjar family hope and move them one step closer to safety. Everything helps.
Whether or not you're comfortable with making a donation, please post this on social media, send it to your friends, and share it with your loved ones in person 🫂
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Alternate payment methods are my Venmo, @emma-kni, or my co-organizer, Kayleigh Frazer's Paypal, @kayleighpf.
