Rats, Rain, Preventing Death…help us help Maryam’s Family

That struggle has not ended.

Here you can make a huge difference and donate directly to Maryam's Family 

Very little aid is reaching them now. Clean drinking water remains difficult to obtain, food is increasingly difficult for the family to provide, and the everyday necessities that most of us rarely think about have become a constant struggle.

 

Why does Maryam’s family always ask for money? Maryam's family survives because people like you help them survive. The family has no income in the war-torn country, and everyday is a fight to survive.

 

Your donations are not an extra comfort.

 

They help the family obtain drinking water. They help put food in front of the children, that most charities on the ground do not provide. They help them buy the basic necessities they can no longer rely on receiving through minimal aid.

 

When donations stop, their needs do not stop.

 

And now we are looking towards autumn with fear. If you have followed her story since last year, Maryam was only 8kg when we met her, and through all your donations, we helped her not die. The family suffered a great deal during the winter floods. Something we can’t control, is the weather, however, when a family has money at their disposal, they can make fast decisions to survive, decisions they can afford.

 

There is almost nothing between Maryam and the weather.

 

Just a tent.

 

A tiny piece of fabric expected to be a bedroom, a kitchen and a home. It has to protect children from the burning sun and, very soon, from heavy rain, wind and freezing winter nights. And this for the past 3 and a half years.

 

Try to imagine how hard this life is.

 

Imagine seeing dark clouds gathering above your children and knowing there is nowhere safe to take them. The rain begins beating against the fabric. Water floods underneath. The earth becomes mud.

 

There is no proper drainage, so dirty water begins collecting around the tent.

 

Your mattress becomes wet.

 

Your blankets become wet.

 

Your clothes become wet.

 

You cannot dry your clothes or light a fire, as wood and burning materials are scarce. Do you know that the people of Gaza, fight over these things? Not only is it a suffering caused on them, but they turn on each other in order to survive.

 

Then night comes.

 

And you still have to sleep there.

 

This happened to Maryam's family last winter.

 

The photographs below show what they endured.

 

Floodwater surrounded their shelter and soaked the few old mattresses and blankets they possessed. With stagnant water and inadequate drainage around them, the family became sick. They endured the freezing cold with wet clothes and wet bedding.

 

This year, we don't want to wait until Maryam's home is underwater before asking for help.

 

We want to prevent that suffering.

 

Maryam has now endured 16 displacements over three and a half years.

 

Sixteen times being uprooted.

 

Sixteen times having to start again.

 

Sixteen times a little more of an ordinary childhood being taken from her.

 

And now there are baby twins in the family who also need food, warmth, water and protection.

 

Before the worst weather arrives, we want to help the family continue obtaining food and drinking water, while also preparing for winter with the opportunity to afford somewhere safer and more elevated. If a suitably assessed, habitable space can be found in an elevated or partially damaged building, it could offer greater protection from ground-level flooding than another winter on low-lying land beneath tent fabric. But these areas come at heavy costs, we are talking $5000+ month charges to rent.

 

At the same time, we continue collecting towards Maryam and her family's potential evacuation whenever a safe and viable opportunity finally becomes available.

 

Until that day comes, we have to help them survive where they are.

 

Please look at the photographs from last winter.

 

Then imagine another winter beginning.

 

We do not want our next photographs to show the same thing happening again.

 

The rain will not wait until we reach our goal.

 

If you can help Maryam's family prepare before it comes, please donate tonight. If you cannot donate, please forward this email to your friends and family, please share her donation link on your Whatsapp chats.

 

Your donation can help provide food, drinking water, warmth and protection for a family that continues to depend upon our support.

Please help us protect them before the rain comes.