A photo of Karim.
Through our psychosocial support and learning project, AFSC is now supporting over 900 children across three learning spaces in Gaza. These safe spaces provide children with opportunities to continue their education, rebuild a sense of normalcy, and receive psychosocial care that helps them cope with the trauma and displacement.
Each child who attends carries both the weight of loss and the resilience of hope, making these spaces not only centers of learning but sanctuaries of healing.
One of the children who took part in our program was Karim. He was only 9 years old.
Every day, Karim came to our learning and psychosocial support unit, never just another child in attendance. His smile was the doorway through which he entered, his laughter the sound that carried across the room. Karim loved to learn. He loved his friends. He loved life, even inside a tent where childhood is supposed to be temporary, but for him it was everything.
On July 24, 2025, his journey ended. An airstrike near his home stole him away while the rest of the family sustained minor injuries. His small steps, once running eagerly toward the classroom, were silenced. He left behind an emptiness that no words can fill, in the hearts of his peers, and in the hearts of those who taught him and loved him.
Karim (left) took part in AFSC's educational initiative, which has supported children who have been deprived of education in Gaza for nearly two years.
Recently, Karim's mother visited the AFSC learning space to join his fellow classmates in honoring his life.
Karim's mother, pictured with two educational facilitators who worked with her son.
A photo of Karim.
Our facilitators visited his mother, holding her grief with them. A few days later, she came to the learning unit herself. We sat with her in a session of support, where she asked for only one thing: that her son’s name not be erased, that his voice continue to live among the children.
So, the children gathered with her. They spoke his name, they remembered his laughter, they drew his favorite things. His mother embraced them with strength only a grieving mother could carry, sharing Karim’s spirit with them once more. And in that moment, he was present again.
To remember Karim is to remind the world: every child deserves more than survival. Every child has the right to safety, to education, to a life beyond war. Karim will live on inside this project, not just as a name, but as a symbol of innocence stolen and of hope that refused to give in until the very last moment.