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Carrying Water, Carrying Wounds: Asma’a Abu

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Carrying Water, Carrying Wounds: Asma’a Abu Before the war, Asma’a Abdu’s life was shaped by literature and dreams of progress. A graduate of English Literature from the Islamic University of Gaza, she spent her days in an office coordinating projects at UCASTI, crafting reports and organizing activities within the calm rhythm of professional life. But when the genocide began, the script of her life was rewritten with sirens, rubble, and grief. Now, Asma’a works on the frontlines as a project coordinator with Sameer Project, a humanitarian relief organization delivering life-saving support to Gaza’s most devastated communities. “The change was not easy,” she recalls. “I went from sitting in a calm, beautiful office to standing in the middle of the field, looking into people’s eyes, listening to their grief, and feeling it deeply, because I was one of them too.” What propelled her into this work was not ambition, but a calling born of agony. “People were forced into a need they neve...
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Brushstrokes and Seedlings: Noura Al-Qassassiya

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 Brushstrokes and Seedlings: Noura Al-Qassassiya In the heart of Gaza’s shifting ruins, Noura Al-Qassassiya holds a brush in one hand and a seedling in the other. A fashion designer by training, Noura never imagined that one day, her creativity would become a lifeline not just for herself, but for those around her. War has redrawn the lines of her identity. oura is now many things at once: artist, caregiver, daughter, emotional anchor, and displaced woman navigating the unthinkable. Her life is a balancing act performed on broken ground. Her canvas has expanded, from fabrics and sketchbooks to destroyed fields, camp tents, and children's faces. Her life is a balancing act performed on broken ground. When war engulfed Gaza again, Noura didn’t stop working, rather she shifted. She began offering art workshops for displaced children, planting sessions in devastated neighborhoods, and moments of presence for women whose pain had no place to go. Her mission wasn’t just beauty. It w...
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A Dream on the Edge of Beginning: Nadra ElTibi

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A Dream on the Edge of Beginning: Nadra ElTibi A Dream on the Edge of Beginning Before the war came crashing down, 25-year-old Nadra ElTibi was standing at the edge of everything she had worked for. She had just graduated with pride, preparing to begin her new job as a schoolteacher and psychological counselor. But the moment that filled her with the most anticipation was something else entirely. “I was on the verge of a big dream,” she said. “I was going to become a mother after waiting for so many years. I had frozen my embryos… and I was so close.” Her voice holds both strength and sorrow. That dream -delicate, hopeful, deeply personal- was violently interrupted when the war began.   A Bomb, a Bag, and an Ending From the first day of the war, everything changed.  “The center where I was preserving my chance at motherhood was bombed,” Nadra recalled. “Everything was gone in a moment.”  She packed a small bag, left her home, and fled. People she loved were killed. F...
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The Weight of Motherhood, Words and Survival: Noor Alyacoubi

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In a dim room somewhere in Gaza, lit only by what the sun allows through solar panels, Nour Alyacoubi works. She is a mother to a two-year-old girl, a wife, a translator by profession, and a writer by necessity. Before the war, she spent her days translating. Quietly, intentionally. But when the bombs began to fall, so did the distance between her words and the world. Writing was no longer a hobby. It became a lifeline. A duty. A form of resistance carved not in slogans, but in the heavy weight of truth. “I realized that my words could reach places I physically couldn’t,” she says. “And that writing was no longer just a hobby, it became a lifeline.” Nour doesn’t call herself a journalist. But she documents what others don’t. She listens. She writes. She translates pain, whether hers and others’, into sentences. Writing, for her, is more than a task. It is a form of psychosocial debrief, a deeply personal effort to process the unbearable. It is how she documents the days of their lives,...
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Threaded in Survival: Yara’s Story Through Tatreez

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Threaded in Survival: Yara’s Story Through Tatreez When war shattered the rhythms of Gaza, Yara Alshawa didn’t reach for safety but for threads. A 23-year-old law graduate with a deep belief in the power of community, Yara found herself grasping for something to hold onto amid the noise of airstrikes and the silence of loss. What she reached for wasn’t just fabric or color; it was  tatreez , the centuries-old art of Palestinian embroidery. A language of memory. A ritual of resilience. Out of grief, displacement, and a deep need for grounding, she created  Tatreez and Tales ,  an initiative that blends storytelling with embroidery to create spaces of connection, identity, and collective memory for displaced youth. Her hands, once trembling with fear, began crafting something powerful: a safe space stitched in culture and love. In a city reeling from destruction,  tatreez  became her language of memory. A ritual of resilience. A quiet, unshakable form of resi...
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From Chalkboards to Checkpoints: Hanya’s Humanitarian Journey in Gaza

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Hanya always dreamed in verses. A literature graduate, she started her professional journey in the classroom, teaching high school and ESL students. Her world was shaped by poetry, language, and the passion of young minds learning to express themselves. But when the war began, everything shifted. The schools closed. Her students scattered. The familiar rhythm of her life was replaced by chaos, displacement, and silence. In those first few months, Hanya lost more than just her job, she lost her sense of direction. With no classroom, no students, and no way to teach, she sank into a deep depression. Her energy felt wasted as she watched her community suffer. Families were forced to flee, aid was scarce, and her beloved Gaza was unraveling. That’s when something changed. Hanya made the decision to pivot not away from her values, but toward a new way of serving them. She joined an American NGO as a liaison officer. In a small team, she found herself doing everything from attending high-lev...
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Between Bombs and Breath: Norhan Almuzaini

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Between Bombs and Breath: Norhan Almuzaini Norhan Almuzaini is 33 years old. A humanitarian, a program officer at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), and a woman who has spent years working in Gaza’s most fragile spaces. But more than a job title, she is someone who carries within her a relentless drive, a desire to make life better, even in a place where life is constantly under threat. Her journey into the humanitarian world wasn’t accidental. It was born from witnessing Gaza’s protracted crisis;  a crisis that has turned generations into survivors. She believed that NGOs and INGOs were among the few institutions left capable of offering young people hope, dignity, and a future worth imagining. And so, she joined the struggle with purpose. When the most recent war erupted, Norhan found herself paralyzed not by choice, but by circumstance. Trapped in northern Gaza, movement was dangerous and life was suspended. She, a woman committed to helping others, suddenly couldn’t help herse...
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