Give what you can, whenever you can
When you give for gaza here’s how your money will be used
Your donation is for families and children impacted by the ongoing war in Gaza and broader Palestine. It’s important you know that you are not giving to a registered charity but to an initiative created by me, Donna Williams, founder of Emergencyoga and Donna Williams Wellbeing.
Having worked for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement for almost 25 years, half my life, including carrying out two missions with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Palestine, with multiple stays in Gaza, I have personally created this fundraising opportunity to support people I know and know of, families that I know are suffering or that have been recommended to me for support by trusted friends and colleagues.
Your money will be spent on the following support for families in Gaza affected by the war which began in 2023:
Support that helps families stay alive and well in Gaza
Support that helps families leave Gaza to find safety and protection, temporarily or permanently
Support that helps families that left Gaza because of war and / or now want to return home to Gaza
Support to families who are rebuilding their lives in Gaza once the war has finally stopped
Support to children in Gaza or who were evacuated to keep them alive, safe, protected and educated
Support to Palestinians impacted by the war that began in October 2023
Where possible and appropriate cash will be given directly to families to spend on the things that they decide are most vital for their lives. This may be things like food, water and shelter, reconstruction of housing, the starting of small businesses, but it could also be education, travel out of or back into Gaza, visa processing fees, communication tools and more.
This fundraising initiative, intentionally provides as much freedom and choice to the people that it supports in the way they keep themselves and their families safe and protected and choose to rebuild their lives. This is because war and violence take choice, freedom and dignity away from people and I absolutely do not want your generosity to perpetuate that.
An account of income and expenses will be published on my Emergencyoga Instagram account and on this website @emergencyoga.org. Please note that one expense of raising money is the processing fee that the payment provider Stripe charges my account. This is relatively minimal in comparison to many crowd sourcing websites or the administration costs of large humanitarian organizations. I will publish these donation processing costs transparently.
Please also be aware that it is not easy to get goods or cash into Gaza to support families and children nor is it an easy process to help people leave Gaza. Your donation may not be used immediately but it will absolutely be used in the ways stated above. The situation in Gaza is such that decades of support will be required to help families and children find safety, be protected and rebuild their lives in Gaza and beyond. Your generosity will most definitely go towards that, and it will also take time. Please be patient with me and my network and know I am in this for the long haul.
thank you
Donna Williams @emergencyoga
March 2025 Update
It’s currently Ramadan across the Muslim world, a holy month and a time where peace and generosity prevail. As you already know that is not the case for Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. The ceasefire has broken down and people have little left emotionally, physically and mentally to keep going.
A family update
Our two beautiful families that we are supporting have a very different set of issues in comparison to a year ago. *Dr Ahmed and his family spent all their savings and borrowed money to pay for the crossing over Rafah and out of Gaza and into Egypt. A year ago Dr Ahmed bravely said goodbye to his wife, daughters and youngest son as they crossed into Egypt, praying that he and his oldest son would cross to join them a few weeks later. I cannot tell you the relief and joy in my heart when I received a photograph of father and son on the other side of the Rafah border, out of Gaza and in Egypt - they are safe!!! But being a refugee brings with it a complex set of problems. Dr Ahmed is not permitted to work and yet because the family is not Egyptian they are forced to pay school fees as foreigners - making keeping the children in education and almost unbearable cost. If you can help Dr Ahmed with this I know he would be so so grateful.
In the mean time his visa application for Australia was rejected BUT under new arrangements for Palestinians and with the support of our Aussie friends we have been able to make a new application for the family to immigrate to Australia. Whoever you pray to, now would be a wonderful time to put in a prayer that Dr Ahmed and his family are able to make a new life in Australia - my own home country.¨
For *Amal (she prefers this pseudonym over Dunia her previous one), she and her family and all Palestinians in Gaza are living, surviving, days of hopelessness and despair. Throughout this long and brutal way I have rarely heard Amal lose hope but these last weeks of a broken ceasefire are testing her to her limits. She feels there is no future for her children, she wonders if she should try and find a way (but by what means…?), to send them out of Gaza to safety, to have a different life outside of war. She sees starkly the different treatment in humanitarian agencies where expatriates lives seem more important, more protected than the lives of Palestinian staff and this feels like an additional blow to her dignity. It is very hard days. I try to reassure her that nothing lasts forever and to remember to breathe slowly, counting her breath as a way to belay the rising panic of almost 18 months of war. I have no words to help Amal, only to let her know that she is not forgotten, that there are millions of people globally who are fighting for her and for all Palestinians everywhere.
A new opportunity to change a life
In February Amal called me totally distressed and excited at the same time with a new idea. Her youngest daughter who is of university age (but no university to go to of course), has a dear friend Lama and she wanted to give Lama her savings because she thinks her friend needs the money more than she does. Lama’s family were already poor before the war. Now they are destitute and have no house, nowhere to live but in a tent. She already received as much free and discounted tuition as possible but now she has to pay this final $2,000 to finish her studies. Amal asked if we could work some magic and raise the money to keep Lama in university, rather than her daughter paying - not because she didn’t want to pay but because this then creates a debt for Lama that she will feel she has to repay, whereas we could give Lama a gift. And we did it! In less than 48 hours more than 20 awesome humans came up with USD 2,000 and Lama is going to make it through her last year of her dentistry studies. And so we include Lama and her family in our thoughts, prayers and support.
Fundraising and Finances
We’ve raised Euro 3,103.6** since our last report - significantly less than the first year of war but still deeply impactful to the families that we support. Thank you thank you thank you for this continued generosity and to ALL supporters, so many of who give over and over again.
Here’s how we have used the funds you have so generously shared.
USD 300 sent as cash + chocolate and coffee to Amal and family into Gaza via friends
USD 800 sent to Dr Ahmed via bank transfer for school fees
USD 2,000 sent to Amal to pay the school fees of her daughter’s friend Lama
Euro 90.00 in bank fees
Euro 37.01 in payment provider (Stripe) processing fees
Euro 100.36 still on account
**Note that I receive funds in multiple currencies, sometimes in cash, all get deposited in a Euros account which is the same account the donation link goes to.
Everything you do makes a difference
You may feel hopeless about the situation but no one feels more scared and less hopeful than Palestinians in Gaza and who have escaped to to nearby Egypt. You and your energy and your love and your light and your thoughts and prayers - and you money! - make ALL the difference to the Amal, Dr Ahmed, Lama and their families. Please don’t give up. Stand with me and help make sure the children of these families can stay in school, that they have food on the table and hope that there is life after war. Most importantly help them know that they and their situation are on your mind. I think this is the thing our dear friends fear most, that the world has forgotten them. If you would like to send some words of hope and encouragement to any of the people or families we are supporting, specifically of generally please send me a message right here and I’ll make sure they know you’re thinking of them and pass on your wishes.
Upcoming fundraisers
We have a small group of five incredible women, goddesses for Gaza if you like, working together to keep each other motivated and to make sure Gaza is in the minds and hearts of everyone we know. We hope soon to be offering live events in Geneva, a small film screening from incredible Palestinian directors, to a piano concert of music close to Palestinian hearts and more. If you have spaces and resources or time and energy you would like to donate or support such efforts please get in touch - we’d love to hear from you.
April 2024 Update
I write this update on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Eid is usually celebrated by Muslims all over the world with prayers, reunions with family and friends, new clothes, fabulous food and sweet treats.
A family update
Today *Dr Ahmed is celebrating being alive and nursing a broken foot and a badly injured hand and elbow - a not so welcome gift he received trying to run home from his neighbour’s house amidst serious bombing, hoping to reach safety and find his oldest son alive (he did thank goodness!). In typical *Dr Ahmed style he did not go to the already overburdened, partially functional hospital but treated himself at home, only seeking medical supplies a few days later.
The rent on his temporary accommodation in Rafah has increased from USD $650 / to $1,000. Despite him having used all his savings to get his wife and four other children to safety in Cairo, he is not allowed to take in other people in need into his rented home to help share the cost. The ‘rule’ of the land lord is only family members can join as so as the rent continues to increase *Dr Ahmed and his son remain hopeful that they too will be able to depart for Cairo soon to be safely reunited with the rest of their family.
His daughter Jamella has taken matters into her own hands. After watching all her friends leave Gaza months ago, with places in Canadian universities that facilitated their route to safety, Jamella dreams of becoming a dentist. She has started her own Go Fund Me campaign, determined not to let war crush her hopes for a life of freedom and meaning. You can donate directly to support Jamella with this link.
My dear friend *Dunia had hopes this week of finding some food for the Eid celebrations as she shares her rented home with 30 other family members. I am hoping that her sister and family who were displaced again from rented accommodation in Rafah and *Dunia’s parents will by some miracle all be able to join for a meal together today. I know this is something that gives incredible strength to *Dunia, to be with her family in a ‘normal’ moment. She needs the support more than ever these days, as just last week she had to have an emergency (yet routine) operation in a bombed out hospital, wondering if she was even going to wake up alive. Can you even begin to imagine……? *Dunia’s big concern is her daughter Sara who has been suffering so much, losing hope of any future to become an adult and experience all that life offers in the greater world outside Gaza. Just last week Sara won a competition and received a place on a month long exchange Student Leadership Program from the American Consulate, to go to the USA and experience freedom and hope. I desperately want to be able to support Sara with what it will cost for her to take up this place and return that sense of hope to her, hopes that all teenagers should be able to experience.
Your support so far
Below you’ll find an outline of how the incredibly generous contributions that we have received to date have been utilized. As of the beginning of April we had essentially overspent against the contributions we received due to the bank charges incurred by transferring money direct to our families accounts in Gaza (this is why you see more than 100% in the report). We always choose to pay for immediate transfer which comes at a cost, knowing that without this additional fee, the money can be significantly held up and take weeks to arrive in Palestine.
Fortunately since the time of the report below we have already received further donations and at the same time we still need more because the war continues, people’s resilience is low and the situation becomes worse and worse each day in Gaza. And because we want to especially make sure that our families can stay together even if that means being out of Gaza and out of Palestine and that the children especially have a sense of a future being possible.
To date your contributions although mostly given directly in cash have been spent on food, rent, medical supplies and on one (still open) visa application, all of which has meant both families have been safer, more protected and more hopeful than most in Gaza.
What next?
I’m in this for the long haul and am currently looking to form an association for our work so that your donations can be more effective with charitable status. I want to be able to support not only *Dr Ahmed and *Dunia and their families but to be able to give direct support to many more families over the next decade. Because that’s the toll this war takes, decades of recovery for people, children, their bodies and minds, for education, for their dreams, for homes to be reconstructed and for families separated to re-find each other and to be able to live with freedom and in peace. If you would like to be part of our association in some way please reach out on info@emergencyoga.org and let me know - together we are always stronger.
Thank you with every fiber of my being for for your generosity and your solidarity.
Namaste, Donna x
*Names changed for privacy and security
