She Stands: Gaza

Nour Alsaqqa always saw the world through colours and composition. A creative soul by nature, she studied Radio, Television, and Film abroad, chasing a dream that married her love for storytelling with visual expression. But nothing in her education could prepare her for what awaited her back home in Gaza. When she returned, she joined Mashareq, a media company she had long admired. Just two months into her job, everything changed. The genocide began. “Life stopped for a minute,” she says. “Everything I ever knew and believed in crashed and crushed me.” Struggling to cope with the helplessness that engulfed her, Nour made a shift into humanitarian work. It became her lifeline, her resistance. “Working in the humanitarian field is the only thing that makes sense to me,” she explains. Now, she is a communications officer at a leading medical organization, using her skills to document, to inform, and to fight back - one image, one word at a time. Nour’s work began with managing supplies a...

Program Officer, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) | Gaza Strip At just 26 years old, Serena Awad has already lived a lifetime’s worth of heartbreak, resilience, and responsibility. As a program officer at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), her days before October 2023 were filled with hope. She worked on youth development programs, striving to build long-term opportunities for young people across Gaza. But when the war began, everything changed. Serena quickly found herself on the frontlines of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. With formal programming suspended, she shifted into emergency response, coordinating the delivery of aid, supporting displaced families, and conducting rapid needs assessments in some of the most devastated areas. There was no time to process the fear or personal loss. Like many aid workers in Gaza, Serena was displaced multiple times, often continuing her work under bombardment. The lines between professional duty and personal survival...

  "احنا في غزّة مش أرقام، مش أبطال خارقين، ومش أدوات لتحقيق أجندات وسياسات عالميّة، شوفوا غزّة من منظور الإنسان. من حلم بنت بدها تصير معلمة، من بيت صغير فيه ضحك وألوان وذكريات، من مدرسة مليانة أصوات طلاب وحياة." تُخاطب هديل أبو زيد -29 عامًا- العالمَ بهذه الكلمَات، هديل التي قاسَت -كغيرها من الغزّيين- الأمرّين منذُ السّابع من أكتوبر 2023 إلى يومنا هذا، فعاشتِ الخوفَ والألمَ والفُقدان وذل الحاجةِ والحُرمان ونزحت من بيتها أكثر من خمس مرات، ومع ذلك تصدّرت مَشهد العاملين/ات على تلبية احتياجات النّاس في قطاع غزّة. قبل أن تغفُو في كابوسِ الإبادة، عملت هديل كمديرة مشروع في مؤسسةٍ أهليةٍ في قطاع غزّة تُعنى بتمكين الشّباب وتعزيز أدوارهم في إحداث التغيير المجتمعيّ، والمشاركةِ في صنع القرار. ساهمت هديل في إعداد وتنفيذ العديد من التدريبات، والمبادرات المجتمعيّة، وحملات الضغط والمناصرة، والمنصّات الشّبابية، وقد كان دافعها في ذلك هو إيمانٌ عميقٌ في قوّة الشّباب، ورغبةٌ جارفة في أن تكون جهودها مرآةً يرى فيها الشباب الغزيّ إمكانياتهم وطاقاتهم، ويستثمرونها لصنع مستقبلٍ أفضل في قطاع غزّة. هدي...

Amid the ongoing genocide tearing lives and dreams apart in Gaza, Hadeel Abu Zaid, a 29-year-old woman, stands as a symbol of resilience. She was not just a project manager at a local NGO but a spirit carrying an unwavering belief in the power of youth to bring about change, dream, and reshape reality despite the surrounding destruction. Before the war, Hadeel focused on empowering young people, helping them develop their skills, and firmly believing that their voices were the power that could transform society. She created youth platforms, launched initiatives, and sowed hope in the faces of Gaza’s youth, who were exhausted by the siege. But with the war’s eruption, all visions collapsed, and dreams were buried beneath the rubble. Her role shifted from a project manager to someone who now shared the collective pain. She was displaced more than five times, lost loved ones, and watched places she once considered safe transform into ruins. Despite all this hardship, she never once though...