Gaza- Amidst the destruction and the accumulated rubble, the sound of children singing, “Five is a cake with sugar, and six is standing thinking…” The sound leads you to a doorless gate with the words “prayer room” written on it. You enter it and find rooms with cloth ceilings, separated by black nylon curtains. You pull back the curtain and you find small hands lowering and rising as they imitate a teacher walking in front of them.
More than 350 children divided into 9 classes, from kindergarten to third grade, are registered in an initiative launched by parents to educate children in Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
On a floor covered with mats, the children sit cross-legged, their eyes directed towards the teacher who explains to them on a small blackboard the shape of the Arabic letter. With bent backs, they lean over their notebooks placed on the floor. Majed sleeps on his stomach and copies the letter. Tel Aviv Tribune Net asked him why he stretches out while writing, and he said in his weak voice, “My back is hurting me and I am bent over.”
In the next room there are scattered tables, “tables originally made for rolling out bread dough, some students bring them with them every day, to avoid the tiring sitting,” a teacher comments.
Study without qualifications
“No physical environment” is the most prominent challenge facing teachers in the area, according to Amani Abu Riya, the initiative’s official and the director of a kindergarten that was completely destroyed by the occupation.
In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, Abu Riya described the place as primitive, with no chairs, tables, or even toilets! She continued: “Imagine that we ask the student to go home to relieve himself and then come back.”
Abu Riya explained that the children have begun to adapt to this harsh environment, where they sit and suffer from high temperatures and the spread of insects and their bites, which caused some of them to be reluctant to accept returning to school at first, especially since they were not used to being away from their families for 11 months of war.
Psychological struggle despite the pain
10 hours a week, during which students receive educational lessons and psychological relief activities, by specialized teachers with university degrees in education and basic education, who have been working on a voluntary basis only, without pay, for two months, in order to rescue children from the tragic educational and psychological reality imposed on them.
A reality that is difficult to separate from, in light of the destruction surrounding the place from all sides, and the continued flying of drones with annoying sounds that do not calm down and do not leave people a moment of calm to relax their damaged nerves. Children try to triumph over them by raising their voices with the anthem and repeating the phrases of the lessons so that the children’s voices rise above the noise above.
All the children here have had their hearts trampled by war, which has robbed some of them of their fathers and relatives, and has caused most of them to lose their homes, and has destroyed their peace of mind and left them with psychological ailments and deep wounds in their consciousness and subconscious, which the teachers are making strenuous efforts to alleviate.
Psychological counsellor Mai Saleh told Tel Aviv Tribune Net: “Despite the children’s unexpected response to the educational lessons and their strong desire to resume school, they are in dire need of ongoing sessions for psychological relief and treatment of behavioural problems.”
The most prominent of these problems are aggression, excessive excitement, hyperactivity and introversion, according to Mai, who pointed out that there was a significant improvement in the children’s response and reactions compared to the first days of their attendance, calling on charitable associations and institutions to provide support to the children to motivate them and enhance their behavioral improvement.
Hungry stomachs
After finishing the lessons and educational activities, and with enthusiasm driven by the gurgling of their hungry stomachs, the children open their bags and take out pots and metal utensils, and stand in lines to get their share of the food of the hospice that operates daily next to the prayer hall.
The children’s queue appears to be one of three queues, one for men and one for women, a hospice to feed all the camp’s families for free, and bags of bread are distributed next to it. Tel Aviv Tribune Net approached the women’s queue and spoke with the sixty-year-old woman, Umm Muhammad, who walked for half an hour under the midday sun to get a bowl of soup to feed her grandchildren who lost their father and mother during this war.
She says: “I would like to send them to learn, but I absolutely refuse to let them go away from me, and I rush back and forth so that I do not delay them.”
As for the children in line, you can read in the features of some of them the signs of old age, as they are tired. Tel Aviv Tribune Net approached Khaled, who was leaning on a cart with an empty water gallon on it, and asked him about the tasks he had to accomplish today. He replied: “I went out two hours ago to stand at the beginning of the waiting line, to bring food from the Tekiya, then fill the water gallon, and then I will look for firewood.” He replied, his face dripping with sweat before he accomplished any of them.
“Are you tired of the war?!” we asked him. He said, “Is anyone tired? We are all tired, but there are no men in the house except me. I am forced to do all of this, not by choice.”
Solidarity in the most difficult circumstances
All the children dispersed, the queues at the Tekke ended, and the young men entered to prepare the newly built prayer hall to receive the people coming to perform the noon prayer on a scorching summer day.
Overlapping images of the solidarity of the Gazans despite their dire need, and self-initiatives launched by all age groups, not expecting any material reward for them, but rather seeking to heal their wounds themselves after the war has lasted so long. With every day that passes since October 7th, their conviction grows stronger that only their own hands can remove their thorns, repeating with every step: “Nothing scratches your skin except your own nails.”
