Photo: AFSC/Gaza
“Bring my school back, and I would go to school on weekends if this genocide ended.”
Those are the words an 8-year-old child in Gaza said to me just a few weeks ago.
Gaza has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, but the ongoing genocide has destroyed our educational system. While school is well underway around the globe, this is the second year in a row that Palestinian children in Gaza have been deprived of the right to education.
Israeli attacks have killed 11,500 students and 750 teachers. An estimated 85% of school buildings have been destroyed or partially damaged. Buildings still standing have been transformed into shelters for internally displaced Palestinians. And Israel’s total blockade on Gaza has even prevented books, stationery, and other basic school supplies from entering the Palestinian territory.
Despite all the challenges they are facing, children in Gaza refuse to give up their right to education. Even if that means they must attend classes in crowded tents in displacement camps instead of in school buildings and sit on dirt floors instead of in chairs with desks.
Thanks to advocacy and support from the AFSC community, our team in Gaza is doing all they can to make a difference for the Palestinian children of Gaza. Over the past month, we have managed to distribute 1,500 school kits for kids in the many temporary learning spaces in the Middle Area and Khan Younis. Each kit provides a child with a backpack with notebooks, pencils, and stationery.
It has meant the world to see students’ faces light up when they receive these supplies to help them in their schooling. They almost didn’t believe it when we handed them the bags. One of them told me he was glad that he had no longer had to carry his notebooks in an old burlap rice bag.
We are so grateful to everyone who has supported our efforts! To see more, watch this video of a recent distribution of school supplies in the Middle Area.
