FAQs

In January 2024, the uncle of one of our cofounders was killed in the genocide, and upon his daughter’s request, the project was named after him to honor him. The Sameer Project is dedicated to all the martyrs of Gaza.

We operate as an unincorporated mutual aid group, so we are not registered as a legal entity. Initially, this was because we weren’t expecting to last very long – we assumed a genocide would be internationally condemned and quashed and our aid would only be needed temporarily. As we’ve developed, we’ve learnt that being unincorporated allows us to be more agile, which is especially important given the complex political nature in Gaza, Palestine. However, we have established various lines of accountability. See below.

We’re held accountable by various partners:

• Our community – we hold ourselves accountable first and foremost to our communities, both those we support on the ground and our donors. Since we launched TSP, we have documented all our work and provided consistent updates through our Chuffed links. We have receipts for most of our purchases and we get papers from hospitals, civil defense and ambulance workers on every collaboration.
• The Social Change Nest – our fiscal host allows us to manage our funds and provide aid in Gaza. They undertook a thorough due diligence process on The Sameer Project and our co-founders before taking us on, which is refreshed frequently. They also run due diligence on key recipients of our funds, as well as large donors and have oversight of our general financial activity. 
• Chuffed – we use Chuffed as our main crowdfunding platform, who run their own due diligence process. We continue to collaborate closely with them.
• UNICEF WASH Cluster (State of Palestine) – in February 2026, TSP became a member of the State of Palestine WASH Cluster, which is led by UNICEF and operates on the principles of coordinated partnership.

We do as much as we can to stay true to our values but it’s important to note that it’s not always possible when operating in a genocide. However, we strive to be open and reflective so we can continue to learn and hold ourselves accountable to our values.

We center Palestinians in Gaza and their liberation: we try to make this clear in our communications and make sure we only align with allies who share the same goal of liberation. We leverage our strong networks and staff of 150+ within Gaza to make sure we are always led by the needs of those we serve. Our aid is never a tick-box exercise. We ask our communities what they need and we do our best to respond. We also provide surveys in camps to collect feedback.

We promote resilience, dignity and agency: we’re conscious in our aid distributions and try to ensure they’re done in the most dignified ways possible – e.g. going to each tent and providing the package instead of lines, hiring extra workers during food distributions in the famine to prioritize safety, ensuring there are no conditions attached to our aid. We also try to ensure high-quality food and materials where possible. E.g. the food prepared in our kitchen is nutritious and flavorful. We also run initiatives to help foster the culture, joy and resilience in communities – strengthening the Palestinian identity is in itself resistance.

We offer only unconditional aid: we use assessments to determine which communities are in need and then we serve the whole community. We refuse to exacerbate inequalities and tensions by being selective and creating barriers to access.

We’re agile: The Sameer Project started out as providing tents and shelter but as the genocide evolved, we expanded to redistributing food, water and medical aid. We’re able to pivot quickly because of our strong networks and committed team.

We hold ourselves to a high level of accountability: our long-term supporters will know that we’re diligent about sharing updates of our work and how we spend donations. Our story has been captured in detail through our Chuffed updates and our social media. We also work closely with our fundraising partners, Chuffed, and our fiscal host, The Social Change Nest, to ensure checks and balances are in place.

Through our networks on the ground, we identify the most vulnerable and underserved communities. These are encampments and areas with no or very limited access to outside advocacy and often families that were already disenfranchised before the genocide began. 

We’ve developed our own assessment framework to identify particularly vulnerable communities and determine their most pressing needs, categorised into shelter, water, food, plumbing/drainage, humanitarian aid, health and protection. We have formed committees made of experts from our team with varied backgrounds (e.g. civil engineering, doctors) who go out to communities, assess their needs and challenges, and develop a plan of action and support. The committees focus on both the immediate needs as well as the long-term solutions to any key challenges they’re facing. Having a neutral, systematic process is important to us as it allows us to work more fairly and equitably. 

Once we’ve identified an encampment or area and what their needs are, we serve that entire community with unconditional aid. We are determined not to create hierarchies or exacerbate tensions by giving to some and not others.

The Sameer Project does not bring any aid into Gaza itself. Rather, we buy aid available on the market and give it to vulnerable and underserved communities (see How do you choose who to support? for more on this). The context in Gaza is ever changing but since the genocide began, very limited aid has been allowed into Gaza and the aid that is allowed in, is distributed to those authorised by the occupation or left in storage, guarded by security. Additionally, many trucks that enter Gaza bring commercial goods, rather than free aid. As a result, a false economy has been engineered – those who receive aid but don’t need the specific items they receive might decide to sell what they can; some sellers are war profiteers encouraged by the military occupation.

Because we are reactive and provide a broad range of aid, we typically don’t buy enough of one item to dramatically impact prices. TSP’s purchasing power is relatively minimal compared to big organisations. Additionally, most of TSP’s funds pay for salaries, transport and infrastructure. Still, we are conscious of trying to secure aid at the lowest prices and buying in batches, though this isn’t always possible. 

This is part of the reason we built our own kitchen in December 2025 and are working towards securing a desalination plant. Projects like these allow us to limit our dependency, and influence, on external factors. For example, our kitchen already produces meals at half the price of other kitchens that sell to mutual aid groups.

Our fiscal host, The Social Change Nest, helps us transfer money into Gaza. This either goes directly to suppliers or is withdrawn by cash traders, who receive 12-15% commission. There are very few banks or ATMs in Gaza – nearly all have been destroyed (since the “ceasefire” on October 8 2025, a couple of Bank of Palestine branches have re-opened).

We keep operating costs minimal – as of May 2026, they are equivalent to less than 1% of the funds we raise and send directly to Gaza. As we look forward, we aim to become more sustainable, which means increasing our operating costs to approx. 2% of funds raised for aid.

Operating costs are raised and covered separately through a mix of grants, discounts from our fiscal host and our new Substack.

While both models aim to support communities in crisis, they operate with completely different structures, philosophies, and speeds.

International Aid (Top-Down)

International aid typically flows from large institutions, foreign governments, or massive global NGOs (like the UN or USAID).

• How it works: It relies on large-scale bureaucracy, formal international agreements, and massive supply chains.
• The Challenge: Because these organizations are so large, their funding often comes with heavy political strings, rigid legal restrictions, and slow bureaucratic approval processes. This can cause significant delays in getting the right kind of help directly to the people who need it most during an active crisis.

Mutual Aid (Horizontal & Grassroots)

Mutual aid is a collaborative, community-led model based on solidarity, not charity. It is entirely grass-roots.

• How it works: Neighbors and advocates work directly with the affected community to identify immediate, real-time needs and fulfill them directly. There is no middleman or complex institutional hierarchy.
• The Advantage: Mutual aid is incredibly agile. Because initiatives like The Sameer Project operate directly on the ground with trusted local networks, we can bypass the red tape that stalls larger organizations.

In short: International aid is a large institution providing charity from the outside. Mutual aid is a community coming together to share resources, take direct action, and survive a crisis collectively. By supporting mutual aid, your donations are instantly turned into real-time resources—like food, clean water, and medical care—directly on the ground without delay.

You can read more in these articles:

What Is Mutual Aid, And How Can It Transform Our World? | GlobalGiving
Re-imagining Aid and Development: Lessons from Mutual Aid Networks | Oxfam

Yes! We can (and very happily) receive grants from US grantmakers. You can make grants directly to The Sameer Project or to one of our fiscal hosts/partners.

The Social Change Nest (SCN) – SCN is a UK-based Community Interest Company and they’re able to sign grant agreements and receive funds on our behalf. If you’re able to cover their 5% processing fee, that would be incredibly helpful but we understand not everyone is in a position to do this and we’re grateful for any contribution.

If you need a US 501(c)(3) charity to receive your grant, we have a number of partners we can talk to who can help us.

Either way, please get in touch at info@thesameerproject.com. Thank you for your support!

Yes! We can (and very happily) receive grants from UK grantmakers. You can make grants directly to The Sameer Project or to one of our fiscal hosts/partners.

The Social Change Nest (SCN) – SCN is a UK-based Community Interest Company and they’re able to sign grant agreements and receive funds on our behalf. If you’re able to cover their 5% processing fee, that would be incredibly helpful but we understand not everyone is in a position to do this and we’re grateful for any contribution.

If you need a UK charity to receive your grant, we have a number of partners we can talk to who can help us.

Either way, please get in touch at info@thesameerproject.com. Thank you for your support!

The best way to donate money to us is via our Chuffed crowdfunding page unless you are a UK donor, in which case, we prefer you to use our JustGiving page. This is because our JustGiving page is in partnership with Small Steps Project who receive Gift Aid, allowing us to increase your donation by 25%. We are also able to receive donations via PayPal, Venmo and direct bank transfer for larger amounts. If you have any issues, just email us at info@thesameerproject.org. Thank you so much for your support!

Our fiscal host, The Social Change Nest, helps us transfer money into Gaza. This either goes directly to suppliers or is withdrawn by cash traders, who receive 12-15% commission. There are very few banks or ATMs in Gaza – nearly all have been destroyed (since the “ceasefire” on October 8 2025, a couple of Bank of Palestine branches have re-opened).

Because we are reactive and provide a broad range of aid, we typically don’t buy enough of one item to dramatically impact prices. TSP’s purchasing power is relatively minimal compared to big organisations. Additionally, most of TSP’s funds pay for salaries, transport and infrastructure. Still, we are conscious of trying to secure aid at the lowest prices and buying in batches, though this isn’t always possible. 

This is part of the reason we built our own kitchen in December 2025 and are working towards securing a desalination plant. Projects like these allow us to limit our dependency, and influence, on external factors. For example, our kitchen already produces meals at half the price of other kitchens that sell to mutual aid groups.

The Sameer Project does not bring any aid into Gaza itself. Rather, we buy aid available on the market and give it to vulnerable and underserved communities (see How do you choose who to support? for more on this). The context in Gaza is ever changing but since the genocide began, very limited aid has been allowed into Gaza and the aid that is allowed in, is distributed to those authorised by the occupation or left in storage, guarded by security. Additionally, many trucks that enter Gaza bring commercial goods, rather than free aid. As a result, a false economy has been engineered – those who receive aid but don’t need the specific items they receive might decide to sell what they can; some sellers are war profiteers encouraged by the military occupation.

Through our networks on the ground, we identify the most vulnerable and underserved communities. These are encampments and areas with no or very limited access to outside advocacy and often families that were already disenfranchised before the genocide began. 

We’ve developed our own assessment framework to identify particularly vulnerable communities and determine their most pressing needs, categorised into shelter, water, food, plumbing/drainage, humanitarian aid, health and protection. We have formed committees made of experts from our team with varied backgrounds (e.g. civil engineering, doctors) who go out to communities, assess their needs and challenges, and develop a plan of action and support. The committees focus on both the immediate needs as well as the long-term solutions to any key challenges they’re facing. Having a neutral, systematic process is important to us as it allows us to work more fairly and equitably. 

Once we’ve identified an encampment or area and what their needs are, we serve that entire community with unconditional aid. We are determined not to create hierarchies or exacerbate tensions by giving to some and not others.

We do as much as we can to stay true to our values but it’s important to note that it’s not always possible when operating in a genocide. However, we strive to be open and reflective so we can continue to learn and hold ourselves accountable to our values.

We center Palestinians in Gaza and their liberation: we try to make this clear in our communications and make sure we only align with allies who share the same goal of liberation. We leverage our strong networks and staff of 150+ within Gaza to make sure we are always led by the needs of those we serve. Our aid is never a tick-box exercise. We ask our communities what they need and we do our best to respond. We also provide surveys in camps to collect feedback.

We promote resilience, dignity and agency: we’re conscious in our aid distributions and try to ensure they’re done in the most dignified ways possible – e.g. going to each tent and providing the package instead of lines, hiring extra workers during food distributions in the famine to prioritize safety, ensuring there are no conditions attached to our aid. We also try to ensure high-quality food and materials where possible. E.g. the food prepared in our kitchen is nutritious and flavorful. We also run initiatives to help foster the culture, joy and resilience in communities – strengthening the Palestinian identity is in itself resistance.

We offer only unconditional aid: we use assessments to determine which communities are in need and then we serve the whole community. We refuse to exacerbate inequalities and tensions by being selective and creating barriers to access.

We’re agile: The Sameer Project started out as providing tents and shelter but as the genocide evolved, we expanded to redistributing food, water and medical aid. We’re able to pivot quickly because of our strong networks and committed team.

We hold ourselves to a high level of accountability: our long-term supporters will know that we’re diligent about sharing updates of our work and how we spend donations. Our story has been captured in detail through our Chuffed updates and our social media. We also work closely with our fundraising partners, Chuffed, and our fiscal host, The Social Change Nest, to ensure checks and balances are in place.