Augustin (second from right) with her friends during their first physical event in Kuala Lumpur where they sold T-shirt and merchandise. — PalatePalette
WRITER Deborah Augustin, 36, never imagined that her small GoFundMe donation for a family of six from Gaza, Palestine, would one day grow into a systematic fundraising campaign.
“This is my way of trying to help them but I couldn’t have done this alone,” says the Petaling Jaya native.
Together with her friends – Nicole Fong and Minxi Chua – Augustin is selling specially-designed T-shirts and merchandise to raise funds for the Shamia family who is now displaced in Rafah.
The T-shirt bears an artwork by local artist Finn Anuar, who beautifully incorporates Palestine symbols that represent the nation’s identity and resistance to Israeli occupation like watermelon, fishnet, olive leaves with branch and pigeon, with a Malaysian element, the red hibiscus.
“Fong showed us Finn’s design and we thought it looked amazing. We contacted her to get her permission to use her design for our T-shirt for this campaign,” Augustin says.
Available in two colours – black and white, the short-sleeve T-shirt is made of 190gsm cotton to give the market an alternative to the usual polyester or jersey-like support-Palestine T-shirts.
The Shamia family at their makeshift shelter in Rafah. — AHMED SHAMIA
Small deed
Augustin’s connection to the Shamia family started with a short video posted on X by 21-year-old Ahmed Shamia in April, in an effort to reach out for help to accelerate the progress of his GoFundMe campaign.
“The campaign was to evacuate his elder brother, Yasser who had cerebral palsy, from Gaza before the borders closed,” she says.
Moved by his plight, Augustin made a small donation and started to share the campaign widely on her social media platforms. Then, the campaign was unexpectedly closed due to some administrative issues.
“This was when I began my own fundraising, starting with a cookie raffle that had participants pay RM25 for a chance to win a dozen chocolate chip cookies,” says Augustin.
Motivated by the success of her first fundraising effort, she did another raffle, before collaborating with Fong on the T-shirts and merchandise project.
“I just felt that someone had to help them and since no one seemed available, I felt I couldn’t look away,” says Augustin.
To date, the project has sent a total of US$7,500 (RM32,242) to Ahmed and his family via a money transfer service to a friend of Ahmed in Egypt.
“Some of this came from the online fundraiser and overseas donors but the majority of it came from fundraising events we participated in,” she adds.
Finn Anuar's art work depicts images like watermelon, fishnet, olive leaves and branch and pigeon, and the red hibiscus.
Not in time
Despite all the efforts, Ahmed did not manage to raise the needed funds in time.
“Sadly, they lost Yasser and had to live with that grief while trying to find safety and survive in Rafah,” says Augustin, adding that she had contacted the Shamia family more than 10 times.
The family comprises Ahmed’s 53-year-old father Mohammed Shamia, his 45-year-old mother Zahia, two brothers Mahmoud, 17, and Omar, seven, and his fiancee Shams Balousha, 21.
Even though communication with Ahmed is a challenge due to the limited and often unreliable internet access in Rafah, Augustin still manages to communicate with him almost daily on Signal.
The T-shirt, priced at RM80 (including shipping) and merchandise are available at https://merch4pal.easy.co/. However, one can still make a donation without purchasing the T-shirt through the Chuffed campaign at bit.ly/ShamiaEvac.
