Palestinian Family Project
Helps struggling Gazan families by providing them with direct financial support and by liaising with agencies like the WHO to facilitate medical evacuations.
We aim to give people in the Western and Arab worlds a window into the events these families are experiencing as they recover from devastation and loss. Please sign up for our newsletter to receive a monthly update on the families we are helping.
David Allan
Message from the Founder
My name is David Allan. I’m a Canadian businessperson in the manufacturing industry who operates subsidiaries in China, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Like everyone around the world, for months I witnessed a stream of appalling images of the assault on Gaza. And like most of us, I wasn’t doing anything about it. Then came June 25th, when I opened the New York Times and saw this article.
Until then, I’d seen endless images and done nothing. But after seeing this little girl’s photo, I found I couldn’t look away. I had to do something. But what? Who, I wondered, was the girl? Could I find out? And if so, could I help her family? The article didn’t identify the girl, but it did credit the photographer, Mohammed Salem from Reuters.
When I searched online for Mohammed Salem, I quickly discovered that he’s a renowned photojournalist who won the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award for his work in Gaza. I located Mohammed on LinkedIn, where he had posted more photos of the girl.
I wrote to Mohammed, and he replied right away. I discovered he’s no ordinary war correspondent whose subjects remain anonymous to him. Mohammed meticulously records the identities and contact details of the people he photographs. The girl’s name, he told me, is Jana Ayad. Her mother’s name is Nesma.
Mohammed gave me Nesma’s phone number, and using translation software, I painstakingly composed a text message to Nesma in Arabic explaining that I wanted to send funds to help her daughter. I worried she wouldn’t reply, that she’d dismiss my message as unserious. Mohammed agreed to call her to convey my sincerity.
The second problem was how to send funds to a person in Gaza, where the financial system has broken down. With Mohammed’s help, we worked out a way of transferring payments through the Bank of Palestine to a relative of Nesma’s in the West Bank.
I’m thankful to Mohammed for connecting me to Nesma, and to Nesma for accepting my help. When Nesma sent me this photo she took from her daughter’s bedside, she allowed me into her family’s life.
From that moment on, I was no longer just watching Gaza on the news. I had connected with a Palestinian family. I’d offset, if only slightly, the terrible food scarcity that was threatening their lives. I’d done something instead of nothing. But it was just the beginning. I formed this project to allow more people to connect with more Palestinian families.
June 25th, the day the Times published Mohammed’s photo of Jana, happened to be my birthday. That day, I was reborn with a new mission. Once Palestine is free, I hope to build factories to employ talented Palestinian engineers, technicians, and workers. In the meantime, this project will contribute on a smaller scale. After we successfully help the Ayad family, we’ll expand our project to include more families.
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