Update!

Hi everyone, with the ground invasion imminent, Ayoub and his family have packed up their tent and moved out of Rafah. As you can imagine, being displaced again has been very challenging on them and they are living in difficult conditions. With the Rafah border crossing closed, evacuations for all Palestinians are on hold, but it is likely they will reopen the border crossing after military operations subside. This brings us to some good news!

The Raida family have almost reached their fundraising target! A wonderful person in Ireland, Helena, has raised over $8,000 USD after meeting Ayoub’s brother, Ashraf. Once her local fundraising began gaining steam, it required a platform to continue. Jacqui, Ayoub’s original GFM sponsor, and Gaza Bay Area Mutual Aid decided to close Ayoub’s GFM to allow Helena and Ashraf to use their new momentum on the GFM platform to raise funds. To ensure a single stream of donations, we turned off donations for Ayoub’s GoFundMe. We will still keep the campaign online so we can send updates through GFM once the total fundraising goal is reached as well as progress with the family’s evacuation. Co-sponsors of the GFMs stay in touch daily and communicate with members of the Raida family as frequently as the conditions and internet availability allow.

While the Raida family has technically raised their evacuation fees in total, the border crossing is closed and they are currently being displaced from location to location. As you can imagine, moving, finding food and clean water, and other life-saving supplies is tremendously expensive and cuts into those evacuation fees. In order to sustain them and keep the option to evacuate once the crossing re-opens, Helena’s GFM is continuing to raise funds. We encourage people to continue to donate there or directly to Omar Raida through PayPal if they can.

We want to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has supported this family. Your donations have not only helped provide food and basic necessities, but your kindness and messages have given them strength and hope during a truly challenging time.

From Gaza-Bay Area Mutual Aid Collective, we want to say a huge thank you to Jacqui, who worked tirelessly to send funds, thank donors, communicate with GoFundMe, and to offer around the clock support to Ayoub and us, as well as the amazing Berklee SJP in Boston and Bay2Gaza Mutual Aid for all the support with fundraising, as well as to our community members and social media friends who donated and shared the campaign. We are honored to have you in our community!

All of the folks who have invested time, energy, and love into these fundraising campaigns have committed to supporting the family in an ongoing capacity. We are building relationships we cherish and will continue to honor them.