Live from Gaza: Hani’s Family
In this Voices of UNRWA article, Hani Almadhoun, UNRWA USA Director of Philanthropy, shares a deeply personal reflection on his connection to Gaza.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been the humanitarian backbone operation in the Gaza Strip since 1950 providing education, health care, and social services. The Agency continues its services to this day serving more than 2 million people in Gaza alone. UNRWA USA is a nonprofit organization that supports the work of UNRWA through fundraising and advocacy.
My mother and her grandchildren in north of Gaza
Not many folks in my line of work are fundraising for programs that could literally mean life or death for their own families. But here I am, as the Director of Philanthropy for UNRWA USA, navigating that very reality, and I wish that were not my case.
Today, and for the past 213 days, I have not learned about the unimaginable violence, starvation, and terror in Gaza through UNRWA’s Situation Reports. I learn about it firsthand through my family.
To this day, my parents remain in the north of Gaza – the most dangerous part of the Strip – and they refuse to leave. My father told me the last time we spoke: "I have lived most of my life here, and I have no desire to die away from here." My mother agreed.
Right now, Gaza is hell. But it will always be home. It feels like just yesterday that I was walking streets that no longer exist, staying at places that have been erased, and eating at restaurants that are now rubble. I knew and socialized with so many people, only to find out months later they were now six feet under, with only the lucky ones having a proper burial.
Early on in the crisis, I had one sibling who evacuated to the south, I just learned she was medically evacuated to Egypt, with her injured child. She had been on the evacuation list for three months before her name got cleared.
Some of my nieces and nephews
Salam, one of my surviving nieces, lost her parents and siblings in November. She confided in me that she is pregnant and has decided to name her child after her murdered sister, Siwar. Siwar was killed the day after Thanksgiving, along with her three other siblings and her parents.
Once known as a sociable and talkative person, Salam has not been speaking much. She has been struggling with the heavy dose of injustices she and her sister Roa have experienced. In a matter of days, they lost their uncles and aunts, grandparents, parents, siblings, and their homes.
My four surviving siblings, who are living through hell in the north of Gaza, are distracting themselves with service projects and creative ways to help take their minds off their dire situation and provide meals for their neighbors. They tell me these projects distract them from the daily fears of constant airstrikes, lack of food, resources, and personal safety.
Each one of them is homeless now, and each one of them has endured layers of trauma and heartbreak.
My friends in Gaza are constantly asking for support, seeking ways to get medicine to their sick relatives, or requesting for me to help promote their crowdfunding page. I do what I can, but no one ever imagined the level of pain and suffering that has become common and abundant in Gaza.
My siblings in the north of Gaza are providing meals for their neighbors
On a professional level, I have chosen to bury my emotions somewhere deep and put them behind walls. I do this to be able to function, to be their voice, and to share our truth. It has been challenging because the misinformation is nonstop, and seems deliberately designed to keep us from doing our important humanitarian work.
However, I am here for it. UNRWA is showing up for Palestine refugees right now. For almost two million of them, including Roa and Salam. Very few things in life are as important as feeding a hungry child, the same child who is being denied school and a meal. UNRWA is on the front lines and ready to do all these things and more, not once and done, but every single day since before October 7th and after.
Whatever the need may be, UNRWA will be there. We rely on both you and UNRWA USA to make sure the Agency has the resources to respond in Gaza undeterred by all the attacks, both physical and verbal. We urge you to stand with us during these trying times and send a safe and secure tax-deductible gift here that will make a lasting impact in Gaza.
May the next time you hear from me be when my family is reunited — those who fled to the south and suffered, and those who stayed in the north and paid for it dearly. Let’s show my family and the people of Gaza that we will never forget about them and that we are not fully resting until they do.
Gaza isn't just a place I fundraise for. It is home. It is my family, my friends, and my guiding star. It is my Palestine. And we owe it everything.
