MacEwan student and SAMU Students’ Council member, Layal, is running a fundraiser to help fund members of her family to leave Gaza. Layal lived in Gaza until her family made the difficult decision to leave during the war in 2014, but not all of her family was able to leave. Her family was uprooted and displaced by Israel like many other Palestinians during the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) in 1948. Layal’s oldest sister, Rolla, is currently in Gaza and doing her best to survive with her children. Rolla lost her husband last October, nearly one month into the Israeli bombardment. Layal has asked that her last name not be shared in this article.

“He was in the supermarket getting groceries for his house and other people who were taking shelter in his home, but they bombed the supermarket,” Layal says.

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“He was in the supermarket getting groceries for his house and other people who were taking shelter in his home, but they bombed the supermarket.”

Layal, SAMU student councillor

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Her brother-in-law is not the only family member her family has lost. Layal says that she has stopped counting how many people she has lost. Her GoFundMe campaign page says that she has lost 37 other family members. The possibility that her sister could be next spurred Layal to start the process of helping her sister and uncles evacuate Gaza. The process to do so is neither easy nor cheap. According to the CBC, Gazans can be expected to pay between $6,770 and $13,500 (Cdn) to escape through Egypt.This price does not include the funds it would take to find living accommodations, medical care, food, and basic necessities. While Layal hasn’t reached her fundraising target as of yet, there has been an outpouring of support from her fellow students and friends. As of publishing, the fundraiser has reached $21,205 of its $29,000 goal.

Layal is asking that MacEwan support its students who are suffering due to the effects of the genocide. “Students who are either losing family members in Gaza, students who are related to that area, or just any students witnessing a genocide and they’re not able to do anything,” she says. Layal also feels that Muslim and Arab students are specifically facing a harder time as they become the targets of people’s hatred and misinformation.

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 “That’s what I’ve always loved in MacEwan. The sense of community that we have here. We have each other.”

Layal, SAMU student councillor 

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Layal has noticed the kindness and empathy that her fellow MacEwan students have expressed to her in light of her fundraiser. “They showed a lot of support. People started sharing it and I’ve collected a good amount of money but I’ve not reached my target,” she says. “That’s what I’ve always loved in MacEwan. The sense of community that we have here. We have each other.”

While she hopes that people will continue to share her cause and bring awareness to it, there is no shortage of obstacles in her path to getting her family to safety. The federal government has announced that it will only accept 1,000 Palestinian refugees. Layal has begun the process of applying to secure her family’s evacuation. Although they applied back in January, they have yet to receive a response. Layal and her family have had to brace themselves for the possibility of rejection, but they have also had to brace themselves for what comes after acceptance. 

“I’m the one that has to take care of my sister while she’s staying in Egypt… it’s on me to pay for the flight tickets, and it’s on me to secure her if she makes it here, insha’Allah [God willing],” Layal says. She hopes that through people’s generosity, the fundraiser may help with those expenses as well. 

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“We had to sign that we are a hundred per cent responsible for the people that we’re bringing to Canada.”

Layal, SAMU student councillor 

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“We had to sign that we are a hundred percent responsible for the people that we’re bringing to Canada,” Layal says.

When asked what else the student body should do beyond sharing and donating, Layal encourages students to educate themselves and look beyond the biases of Western media. She also stated that students who want change should put themselves in positions to make change, specifically referencing the all-time-low interest in MacEwan student governance. 

“It is their chance to show where they stand, so, when the future generations ask ‘what were you doing?,’ you have an actual answer,” she says.