Request for Support for Gazan Ph.D.
Student in Canada
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| Maha Mehanna |
I’m writing this note to request your assistance and support in a fundraising effort[1] to sustain a woman from Gaza mid-way through her Ph.D. studies in Canada.
The woman is Maha Mehanna, a longtime friend and colleague. Maha left Gaza in 2018 to pursue her master’s degree in Conflict Transformation at Eastern Mennonite University in the United States and graduated with honors in 2020.
Having lost her mom and older brother in Gaza while studying in the US, Maha decided to continue her education and is now a Ph.D. candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies, at the University of Manitoba in Canada. She is midway through her Ph.D. program.
Then, October 7, 2023, happened, and its aftermath continues with no end in sight through today. Maha, like every Palestinian around the globe, became numb, finding it difficult to focus on anything but our loved ones in Gaza.
Maha is a strong person, one of the strongest I’ve known. She paused her studies for a few months, but as expected, she refused to remain paralyzed and restarted her research.
Every few days Maha shares updates about her family in Gaza, many of whom I have met. One family member in particular is close to me, Mohammed Mehanna, her nephew, who was living until recently in the same home in Rimal, Gaza as Maha did with her late parents along with other siblings and their families. Mohammed is the reason I met Maha to begin with. She contacted me with a cold call after an article I had published in the Al-Quds local newspaper. She was seeking assistance for Mohammed. Not money, but health care.
Mohammed lost his eldest sister at the age of 16 to a rare genetic immune disease that could not be diagnosed in Gaza or Cairo, where she died, and at the time that Maha reached out to me, Mohammed had begun exhibiting the same symptoms. Maha was beside herself. She had already done all her research on where Mohammed could receive medical treatment and found an Israeli hospital, Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre near Tel Aviv; confined as they were to Gaza, that was their best bet. Only one issue stood in the way: how to get from Gaza to this hospital, given the Israeli closure of Gaza. Long story short, we worked together on the red tape and got Mohammed out, with Maha accompanying him as his caregiver. The initial diagnostic appointments were covered by a medical referral from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. I met Maha and Mohammed in person for the first time at the hospital. After every visit, which happened about every three weeks, we would go to Jaffa for an early fish dinner and a walk on the beach, before I drove them back to the Erez Checkpoint, always in a rush because their permit stated they must re-enter Gaza by 7:00 pm or they would lose the ability to exit again. Once, our two daughters joined me on one of these visits and gifted Mohammed the card game UNO. He loved it. The hospital visits went on for several years when we were able to obtain Israeli permits. Finally we had a breakthrough, when the tests finally revealed the rare disease Mohammed had (and which had evidently already killed his older sister): Chronic Granulomatous Disease (CGD). He needed a bone marrow transplant. The next challenge was how to get his father and siblings out of Gaza to be tested as bone marrow donors. Yet another long story short, one of his sisters was a match, a medical referral from the Palestinian Ministry of Health covered the cost of his transplant, and he has recovered and is growing normally again.
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| March 2008 - Mohammed
Mehanna, Sam Bahour, Nadine Bahour, Areen Bahour (L-R) |
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| Sam and Mohammed playing UNO at Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre |
This was all intended to illustrate that I know this family and I know Maha well. She subsequently worked for me as a translator, and I can vouch for her matchless tenacity and professionalism.
In late October 2023, there was more bad news. Maha informed me that their family house in Gaza had been bombed, and several of their immediate family members had been killed. Mohammed and the rest of the family fled south with only the clothes on their backs. Mohammed had suffered broken ribs in the bombing and was given minimal first aid at a hospital, while his siblings had other head, back, leg, and shoulder injuries, most of which could not be treated at the time due to inadequate medical supplies and staff. The painful journey south was a living hell.Maha went silent for a few weeks. At some point she got up, brushed herself off, and continued her studies.
She shared with me that, since October 7th, she has encountered significant racism, prejudice, discrimination, dehumanization, and intimidation in Canada, both on and off campus, especially when applying for jobs. She mentioned that her funds were running low, and she was not sure she could sustain herself until the end of her Ph.D. A few scholarships were identified, and she diligently applied for them all. Regrettably, all were declined given the overwhelming number of applications submitted.
We talked about the next steps and started to strategize. Then, amid our exchanges, more tragedy.
Maha shared with me that her eldest sister, her sister’s older son, and his wife and their four children were killed in an Israeli bombing of their home in al-Bureij refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip. Maha’s sister's two other sons were severely injured. So many loved ones gone in the blink of an eye. It turns out that, in total, more than 150 of Maha’s extended family members have been killed in Gaza in the past ten months of this slaughter.
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| Al Jazeera news coverage of the Mehanna home airstrike. |
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| Maha’s eldest sister’s family home in the al-Bureij refugee camp. |
Maha is confronting a hard choice during this emotionally fraught time: Drop her Ph.D. studies and depart Canada for a precarious existence in Egypt until the war ends -- or find the funds and mental grit to be able to stay the course in Canada. Maha knows her preference, but her lack of resources is not a hurdle that she can overcome alone.
Thus, this request. If you are reading this, you know as I do that the needs of Palestinians in Gaza today are mind-boggling. Yet as the world mobilizes to help Gazans pick up the pieces of everyone’s failed policies and (let us face it squarely) the broad foreign complicity in Gaza’s annihilation, we cannot forget the Gazans who find themselves abroad during this mayhem at home. Many went overseas to arm themselves with the most powerful weapon of all, education. Many of them, like Maha, plan to return home to take part in the rebuilding of their ravaged society, an even higher priority than the rebuilding of destroyed physical structures.
If you want to help and are in a position to do so, I would like to request your support. Everyone can share this with friends and on their social media. Let us expand the circle as widely as we can. Ultimately, we are aiming to raise $48,000 as itemized below. Any contribution, no matter how small, makes a difference. I will start the campaign by donating $1,000.
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This tally will be updated daily until we meet our goal:
$12,016.70
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HOW TO DONATE
Donations may be sent directly to Maha’s US bank account, PayPal, or channeled via epalestine.ps/donate. All funds go directly to Maha, without fees or otherwise.
Maha's banking details with Park View Federal Credit Union:
USD$ Bank Details for Wire Transfer:
Full Name of Account Holder: Maha Mehanna
Bank Name and Address: Park View Federal Credit Union
1675 Virginia Avenue, Harrisonburg, VA 22802, United States
Account No: 45433-2200
Branch Sort Code: N/A
IBAN Number/Code: N/A
SWIFT Code / BIC Code: 251480806
FOR USA ACCOUNTS ONLY - Routing number for payments made from outside the United States and Canada: 251480806
(If you choose this payment method, kindly indicate it is a gift to avoid any associated fees).
3. CanadaCanadian donors: INTERAC e-Transfer: Make Payment to: maha2711@gmail.com
4. USA + Global
Via ePalestine: epalestine.ps/donate.
Al-Bireh/Ramallah, Palestine
sbahour[AT]gmail[DOT]com
[1] I infrequently undertake such personal fundraising efforts, the last being a few years ago for a woman from Gaza who needed help to take a master’s degree in the UK. She graduated with honors and is now working on her Ph.D. Before her, it was for a Palestinian citizen of Israel who wanted to complete his masters in the UK, he earned it and is now back home in the Galilee.
