“Behind every message I send is a human story: a person hoping to survive, a mother longing for safety, and a family exhausted by fear, uncertainty, and separation. I ask anyone who has the ability to help to look at my situation with compassion and humanity, because hope has become one of the few things I still have. I am not asking for the impossible. I am simply asking for a fair chance to live, and for the opportunity to be reunited with my family in safety, peace, and dignity.” – Palestinian Doaa Nashwan, forcibly separated by Canada from her husband and three children at the Gaza evacuation point, April 2, 2025.
“I wish that every time when I wake up, I can see my mom. And I wish Canada can help me to bring my mom. I cannot be alone. I am trying to do everything to bring my mom. I wish Canada can help me. Please Canada, try your best to help me please.” Doaa Nashwan’s 8-year-old daughter, Joury.
Send Some Snail Mail for Social Justice!
Parliamentarians regularly ignore emails, but physical mail shows someone cares enough to spend the time to write something out and pop it into the mailbox. This year has seen the emergence of snail mail letter clubs, a reminder of our special relationship to sending and receiving real, tangible pieces of mail.
Please send a handwritten letter to grant visas to Doaa Nashwan and all Palestinian visa applicants from Gaza who were promised a lifeline to Canada in December 2023 but who have been denied any mercy, flexibility, and compassionate care. There’s no postage required! It’s a perfect summertime activity while sitting outside at the beach, under a shady tree in the park, or at your kitchen table.
We hope to generate 1,000 personal letters to end the suffering of Doaa and thousands of others who have waited over 900 days under conditions where life support is almost impossible to sustain. Below is a sample letter to MP and Immigration Minister Lena Diab (feel free to personalize it and explain why this issue is important to you) Learn more about his case here: https://www.change.org/p/these-kids-need-their-moms-canada-must-immediately-evacuate-doaa-and-nariman-from-gaza
HOW THIS WORKS
1. Get a pen and paper and an envelope (or type out a letter and print it off)
2. Write a letter (sample below, feel free to personalize it). If handwriting is a problem, you can type a letter and print it out with your signature (if typing, maybe handwrite an additional sentence as well as a PS, like “We cannot allow this suffering to continue a single moment longer!” or “I ask you, person to person, to recognize the humanity of these families and help bring them together immediately.”
3. Put your return address in the upper left hand corner of the envelope. No postage required! Don't put any slogans or messages on the envelope—we want each one opened!
4. Send the letter for FREE to the following address (No postage required!)
Lena Diab, MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
5. Email tasc@web.ca to let us know you sent a letter so we can keep track of our numbers.
6. If you have a scanner or cell phone with a camera, send a picture of you holding your handwritten letter to tasc@web.ca; if you are comfortable taking a selfie and holding up your letter and sending it to us, we would love to post it on social media
7. Share this callout with friends, family and on social media.
Thanks so much!
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Palestinian Family Reunification Project (Rural Refugee Rights Network)
SAMPLE LETTER (Feel free to personalize or edit: why is this issue important to you?)
Dear Lena Diab,
Imagine the pain of being forcibly separated from your children after surviving two years of the unimaginable.
Imagine being one of two million people crammed into a tiny space 50 times smaller than the City of Ottawa where disease, daily bombings, hunger, and pollution daily threaten your life.
Imagine being someone who can help a modest number of those survivors by issuing visas so they can leave one of the most uninhabitable places on earth.
I write to urge you to grant a temporary resident visa to Doaa Nashwan, a Palestinian filmmaker and mother of three children who simply wants you to fulfill the promise Canada made to her and several thousand Palestinians in Gaza over 900 days ago: that Canada would provide temporary safety with family members already here.
There can be no excuses for further delays in this case and that of thousands of other visa applicants who every day worry they may be killed before seeing their loved ones again.
There can be no excuse to keep several thousand additional survivors languishing in Egypt 30 months after they applied to come here. You have the discretion to make the choices that will save lives.
Every day of delay means another day of risk, of separation, of despair, of dying inside.
I urge you to act immediately to save the lives of the remaining Palestinian visa applicants still inside Gaza: facilitate their evacuation, and help reunite them with their loved ones in Canada. Other countries do this daily. Canada must fulfill its promise and its obligation to save lives.
Name
Town/Postal Code
