Families in the Middle East are facing unimaginable horrors. GlobalGiving CEO Victoria Vrana shares how you can help.
Almost one year ago today, I made an appeal to our shared humanity at a perilous moment—in the wake of the attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel had just declared war against Hamas. My heart was aching for the future harm I feared would befall innocent families.
I hoped that peace would prevail.
Unimaginable horrors and carnage instead followed, with more than 43,000 Palestinians killed and Israel’s war now extending to Lebanon, killing thousands more and leaving millions of families with no safe place to lay their heads at night, children with no safe place to learn, doctors and nurses with no safe place to treat horrendous injuries.
To respond to the escalating violence across the region, GlobalGiving has formally extended its humanitarian response with the introduction of our Middle East Crisis Relief Fund. (Before sharing more, I want to acknowledge the problematic, imperialist history of the term Middle East. We reluctantly decided to use the term, knowing that it would be instantly and widely recognized, which could in turn draw more support for people who need help to survive.)
At its heart, our response is about people who need help now.
Fatima Mahmoud is working around the clock to help families who were forced to leave everything behind in Lebanon—where relentless Israeli airstrikes are now a daily reality. Fatima is one of GlobalGiving’s long-term partners in Lebanon who works for the Union of Relief and Development Associations.
Fatima’s team is visiting schools-turned-shelters in Lebanon, delivering food, blankets, mattresses, and more to families unable to go home.
The Palestinian mother of four now lives in a tent.
A bomb from an Israeli warplane destroyed the women’s embroidery center where Wafaa once worked. Wafaa and her children, who are deaf, fled their home, moving from place to place for days until they found refuge. Wafaa connected with Sunbula, a GlobalGiving partner, and their team is helping Wafaa continue to embroider during the war. “When working on embroidering pieces, this helps me a lot. It is trying during those times, but it helps me in affording my children’s needs,” she shared.
People like you and me—mothers, daughters, fathers, sons—are at risk right now, caught in one of the deadliest conflicts of this century. Every day, they are facing the threat of violence, famine, disease, and generational devastation as the war rages on in Palestine, Lebanon, and beyond.
So many people like you have already stepped forward, enabling GlobalGiving to make emergency grants to more than 30 high-impact organizations since the war was declared last year. Powered by champions like Fatima, they are saving lives and supporting the most at-risk communities despite incredible danger to their own lives.
They need your continued support and an immediate end to the war. They need a lifeline.
“You will find us in every street, among the tents of the displaced and amid the rubble of destroyed homes, even during the most dangerous times. We are there—providing not just essentials but also a lifeline of hope,” an aid worker in Gaza told us.
Thank you for answering her call, for holding onto hope for peace and justice in a dire time, and acting now for mothers like Wafaa or lifesavers like Fatima.
With gratitude,
Victoria Vrana
CEO, GlobalGiving
Support someone like Wafaa through GlobalGiving’s Middle East Crisis Relief Fund.
Featured Photo: Support Urgent Medical Aid in Palestine by SEMA INSANI VE TIBBI YARDIM DERNEGIFind exactly what you're looking for in our Learn Library by searching for specific words or phrases related to the content you need.
