Brothers and Sisters of Gaza

Scroll down the page a little for an overview of my work and Allaa’s work in Gaza

Milk and Diapers to Babies in Gaza

Even though those of his family who are still in Gaza are in dire straits and it would be absolutely understandable if he only focused his attention on supporting them, Allaa’s heart is to get emergency supplies to those in Gaza who need them the absolute most. He is especially focused on getting milk formula to infants who don’t have another milk supply and diapers to infants and babies. Both milk formula and diapers are extremely hard to find, and even if they can be found, the prices are outrageous so most families cannot afford them.

Allaa has commissioned his best friend from high school, Mohammed, to go in search of milk formula and diapers, and then distribute them to families who so desperately need them. They are able to do this when people (as in, you who are reading this) donate the money for Mohammed to buy these things.

Allaa also had the idea to get money to children in Gaza who really need food, or their families really need food. Below is a video of Mohammed giving one of the children a bit of money. As winter comes on and the rain comes, we are also working on ways to find plastic sheeting for people whose tents are not water proof; and we are looking for ways to find winter clothes.

To deliver the money in a safe and trustworthy way, to these civilians who are caught in hell, it takes days, even a week, hours and hours each day, to coordinate the logistics of getting the money in.

As people send me donations, I send them to Allaa, and he sends them — through Mohammed — to these strangers, these precious humans, who just want their children to live.

Here is our Chuffed campaign for milk, diapers, and winter clothes: https://chuffed.org/project/114535-milk-formula-to-infants-in-gaza

Overview of Allaa and Tamie’s work in the last year

From November 2023 until May 2024 (when the Gaza-Egypt border closed), I had the tremendous good fortune to work with two other Americans who also lived for years in Israel-Palestine (as did I), to evacuate people from Gaza into Egypt. Depending on the age of the person being evacuated, and the time during the war/genocide, this cost between $2,500 per child to $8,500 per adult. So many of my friends and family donated money, and these other two Americans also had many friends donate money, and together that money paid the exit fees to bring these people to safety in Egypt. Some of those people are now in Australia; some are in the West Bank; most are still in Egypt.

Their lives in Egypt are difficult. They are safe from bombs and starvation and guns~for which we are grateful beyond words. But they have lost their homes, neighborhoods, jobs, many friends, and some immediate family members. Most of them are now living as undocumented migrants.

The primary person who coordinated all the logistics on the ground in Gaza is a man named Allaa. He is from Gaza, and is now living in Europe, I got to know Allaa very well during this whole experience—for months we exchanged voice memos and texts every single day. And so, on May 7, 2024, when the Israeli Defense Forces took over the Gaza-Egypt border, I turned my attention to helping Allaa’s mother, brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, living in Egypt. If you scroll down this page, you will find information on the ways I am helping them within Egypt, and helping them to leave Egypt and immigrate to countries where they have a pathway to jobs and legal residency.

As the summer went along, and the horrifying genocide in Gaza continued, Allaa figured out how to get small bits (between several hundred and several thousand dollars at a time) of money into Gaza, which he distributed to people he knows or has been made aware of, in the very most dire circumstances: people who are malnourished, need medicine or other medical help, children who do not have enough food, and infants who do not have milk. If you scroll down the page, I give information on how to donate to Allaa’s life-saving work within Gaza.

Circle of Women

My beloved friend and sister~I’ll call her Tea~she is Allaa’s older sister, and she has led a group of 22 women who were all part of a “table banking” collective. Table banking is a well-known system of informal banking, largely used by women worldwide who do not have access to formal loans or banks. The women pool their money each month, and loan the pooled money to one woman at a time so that she can invest it in her own small business. Over time, each woman benefits from a loan—and each woman has the chance to support her sisters.

These 22 women that formed the collective Tea led, they were women throughout the West Bank and Gaza. And now, eight of these women—8—have died or gone missing in Gaza.

But the other 14 women are still depending on the money that these women would have given each month. They have made business decisions based on the expectation that this money will come month after month. So, as the leader, Tea is responsible to get these women this money.

When she told me this story, we were sitting beside each other on a couch, our arms touching. (I visited Allaa in Europe, and she was there too.) Her eyes were bloodshot from the fear and grief. She was telling me that all her life she has helped others; she has never been in the position of asking for help. But now, as we sat together, so close, she had the immense courage and dignity to ask for my help.

So I am putting together a group of people who will cover the 8 women. You can read my longer reflection on this on my Substack, here.

To cover the 8 women, we need $1,100 each month between August 2024 and April 2025. So far, 9 people have pledged a total of $350, so we only need $750/month more in donations.

If you can pledge some amount each month, text or call me at 646.753.2342 or email me at tamieparkersong@gmail.com and let me know how much you want to pledge, or just send donations via Venmo to @tamie-parkersong or Zelle to tamieparkersong@gmail.com or PayPal to tamieparkersong.com.

Mai, the Artist

A year ago--before October 7--I asked some friends in Jerusalem if they knew any artists in Gaza, because some writer friends and I wanted to put a few dollars towards supporting an artist in Gaza. No one knew anyone.

Then came October 7 and everything after. Along the way, a family member of one of the families we helped evacuate out of Gaza, that family member knew of this incredible painter in Gaza--her name is Mai.

I had found the artist from Gaza. She is 22. She and I have gotten to know each other a little bit. Her voice is like a stream on a mountain early in the morning.

She and her two sisters and mother miraculously made it out of Gaza—and lost absolutely everything. They live in Cairo now. Her paintings have all been destroyed.

But the painting above, it is owned by a man in Bethlehem, by a dear friend of my dear friend. Look how talented Mai is, how full of ache and sight and soul.

She wants to keep painting. She wants to live. Things are so incredibly hard in Cairo.

Here's the GoFundMe that some friends and I have put together for Mai’s (@artistmai1 on Instagram) living expenses. https://gofund.me/984941cc . If anyone has thoughts on an artist residency or other artistic opportunities, let me or her know!

Allaa’s Family’s Living Expenses in Egypt

This is Sadin, Allaa’s youngest niece. She is alive and healthy and well-fed now. In her last months in Gaza, she was at high risk of malnourishment and God forbid even at high risk of not making it....and now she is okay.

She is okay because many of my friends and family gave money to pay the exit fees to bring her and her mom and family out of Gaza. She is okay because her uncle, Allaa, coordinated the safe passage. She is alive because her family are so strong and good.

Now Sadin is in Cairo with her mom, siblings, aunties, uncles, cousins, and grandma. They are alive, and healthy.

They can't work legally in Egypt. So there are 30 of them, and no one is able to work to pay basic living expenses. (Their relatives from afar send as much money as they can, but 30 people is a lot of people for the extended family to support.) They cannot go to most countries in the world because the world does not want Palestinians. I have spent dozens of hours working with Allaa to try to find somewhere in the world for them to immigrate--it's jaw-dropping how difficult it is.

The family needs money for rent, for utilities, food, clothes for growing kids, and immigration. I accompanied this family on their escape from the hell~it would mean more to them than you can imagine if you could join me in accompanying them here in the still-brutal place just past hell.

Blessed little Sadin. May you flourish in joy, may you grow up internalizing the belief that you really do belong on this Earth. You really are wanted. Here's the GoFundMe link for their living & immigration expenses I started: https://gofund.me/f5ca7a6b

Exit fees & loans & hope

After the onslaught started in Gaza, but before they met us, Allaa’s family who are living in the West Bank and Jordan borrowed $34,000 from friends, neighbors, and colleagues, to pay the exit fees for their family members in Gaza in the most fragile state. In other words, the borrowed money in order to evacuate the most vulnerable people in the family.

They borrowed this money from friends, family, and colleagues who themselves don’t have a lot of money, who loaned it to them with the expectation that they would repay it within a few months. That was months and months ago.

And so, Allaa has asked me if I can help him find the money to repay the $34,000.

Let me pause a moment and reflect on the stunning courage—and vulnerability—and economic desolation— it takes to ask for more money from someone (me) who has already helped you (me) so much. It is one of the most moving experiences I have ever had, to be asked for more help by someone who has already asked me for help so much. To know that he has to humble himself so profoundly, in order to do so. To know that he is humbling himself this profoundly because this is how much he loves his family. And it’s how badly they need the help.

Why can’t Allaa and his other family members outside of Gaza/Egypt work and repay this $34,000, you ask? Well, for one thing, they are supporting the thirty family members who are now living in cramped apartments in Cairo. For another thing, Allaa’s siblings outside Gaza/Egypt have spouses and children and rent and so on.

I have found them $16,500 toward paying off parts of the loan(s). So now it’s a matter of finding an additional $17,500.

Allaa is 30! Only 30. Every day he wakes up in the morning and carries the lives and deaths of just about everyone precious to him in this world. And he does it with grace. He does it with gentleness. And with steely savvy. I’ve rarely met anyone who so spans the wideness between do-not-mess-with-me street-smart discernment and soft kindness.

Allaa sold his car in order to give the money to his family. He moved months ago into a new apartment, and did not buy one stick of furniture because he told himself he would give all his money to his family rather than buy furniture. Only now that 90% of his immediate family are out has he bought furniture. I think about Jesus saying, “sell all you have and give it to the poor,” and I don’t think he was joking around or speaking metaphorically. 

One of the hardest things for me personally is to come to love these humans—Allaa, and his family I have met, and his family I haven’t met, and Mai, Shireen and her family, Esraa and her family, Issa’s family, others—to love them and then to have to bear my own powerlessness to make anything okay for them. I cannot undo their friends and family being killed, I cannot erase Israel’s annihilation of Gaza.

But listen. There is one thing I can do. I can try to help them find money~and money makes a massive, massive difference in circumstances like this. They need to repay the other $17,500 of this loan. It is a bad situation for their family, to not be able to pay back so many friends, colleagues, and neighbors, who loaned them money and expected it to be repaid months ago.

 All of that money went to pay for people to get out of Gaza. If you choose to help them by sending money toward the $17,500, all of that money will go toward getting people out of Gaza. It will just be retroactively so, if that make sense.

To donate to repaying the loan, you can send me money. I prefer Zelle or Venmo because there are no fees. If you must send by PayPal, okay!

Zelle: tamieparkersong@gmail.com | Venmo: @Tamie-ParkerSong | PayPal: tamieparkersong@gmail.com

You can wire it into my bank account—ask me for details. If you are in Europe, let me know by email or phone/text 646.753.2342, and we can figure out what’ll work!