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Support the Gaza Sunbirds
The Gaza Sunbirds are Palestine’s para-cycling team, founded in Gaza by Alaa Al-Dali and Karim Ali after Alaa, a national cycling champion and Olympic hopeful, lost his leg after being shot during the Great March of Return in 2018.
What began as a dream to build Gaza’s first para-cycling team has become something much bigger: a team of athletes, volunteers, and community leaders using sport, aid, and storytelling to support people in Gaza and represent Palestine on the world stage.
Since October 2023, the Gaza Sunbirds have continued their work under impossible conditions. Alongside our sporting mission, our team and volunteers in Gaza have helped deliver emergency aid, food, community support, and essential assistance to families affected by the ongoing destruction.
Your donation helps us continue three connected areas of work:
1. Emergency aid in Gaza
We support locally led aid work inside Gaza, including food distributions, hot meals, essential supplies, and community-led initiatives. Our athletes and volunteers are not only beneficiaries of this work. They are part of the response, helping identify needs, organise support, and reach communities on the ground.
2. Para-cycling and disability inclusion
The Gaza Sunbirds exist to create opportunities for Palestinian athletes with disabilities. Donations help us provide coaching, equipment, prosthetic support pathways, training opportunities, and access to international competition where possible.
Our athletes are working to represent Palestine internationally and to show that people with amputations and disabilities in Gaza deserve not only survival, but dignity, mobility, and a future.
“The Gaza Sunbirds began with a bike, a dream, and the belief that losing a limb should never mean losing your future. Today, we ride for every person in Gaza who deserves dignity, movement, and hope. Your support helps us continue this work, on the road and in our communities.” Alaa AlDali
3. Building long-term rehabilitation and sports pathways
Beyond emergency aid, we are working toward a long-term vision: a Gaza Sunbirds Centre that can support people with amputations and disabilities through sport, rehabilitation, peer support, and community programming.
Every donation helps us build that future step by step.
Why fundraise for the Gaza Sunbirds?
When you create a fundraiser for the Gaza Sunbirds, you are helping keep a community-led Palestinian project alive. Your support helps us respond to urgent needs today while building the foundations for disability justice, sport, and rehabilitation in Gaza for the years ahead.
This campaign began through The Big Ride for Palestine and has grown into one of the main fundraising hubs supporting the Gaza Sunbirds’ aid, para-cycling, and disability justice work.
“We started the Gaza Sunbirds because we believed that Palestinian athletes with disabilities deserved the chance to move, compete, and dream like anyone else. Since October 2023, that mission has also meant standing with our community in Gaza through emergency aid, solidarity, and long-term support. Every donation helps us protect both survival today and possibility for the future.” Karim Ali
Thank you for standing with the Gaza Sunbirds.
Follow our work on Instagram: @gazasunbirds