Until 7 October 2023 in the Gaza Strip, despite the siege and many difficulties, thanks to the organisation of the population lə children could still attend schools and kindergartens. Despite the extreme living conditions to which the Israeli siege had reduced Gaza, there was still a daily routine of lessons, relationships and small spaces of normality in which to continue to grow and imagine the future.

The genocide radically transformed the lives of the surviving people. Israel's indiscriminate and genocidal attacks have systematically hit structures essential to the survival of the civilian population, destroying homes, infrastructure, hospitals. And all schools.

Educational spaces have been made inaccessible, while thousands of families have been forced to take refuge in overcrowded camps, where they live in tents and encampments. To the loss of homes has been added the loss of income: more and more families can no longer guarantee food, clothing and basic necessities. And to all this has been added the loss of the future: preventing the right to study for the younger generations means this.

In this disastrous context, lə children have been deprived of their childhood and right to education. Life in the camps exposes them daily to shortages of essential goods, critical hygienic conditions, emotional stress and isolation, and the impossibility of imagining a tomorrow.

This is why, in addition to the emergency interventions we have carried out with the 'Water for Gaza' campaign, we have recently started a new front of solidarity with 'Roots of Resilience'. A project through which, together with the Ghassan Kanafani Development Foundation (GKDF) in Gaza, we try to ensure protection, education and psychosocial wellbeing for children and adolescents.

GUARANTEEING THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION IN GAZA

One goal of this new bridge to Palestine is to ensure that the children have access to the right to education, as far as possible.

Together with the Ghassan Kanafani Association, a Palestinian community organisation working to ensure access to education and psychosocial support for children, and thanks to the generosity of our donor community, we support the creation of temporary spaces for early childhood education and emergency education programmes in the areas of Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat and Gaza City. Together we organise psychosocial support activities and the distribution of essential materials, such as school supplies and hygiene kits.

In addition to education, another objective is to support the psychological well-being of the children, who have been profoundly affected by war, displacement and the atrocities they have had to endure. Educational activities are therefore integrated with psychosocial support interventions to process stress, regain space for expression and rebuild a sense of security. At the same time, the distribution of hygiene kits helps to improve health conditions and prevent diseases, in contexts where access to water and sanitation is extremely limited.

The work began in January 2026, in a context where returning to create spaces for children was already an act of resistance.

The 'Ghassan Kanafani' association started the first educational and psychosocial support activities involving hundreds of children between 4 and 6 years old, who participated in reading, writing and mathematics lessons, complemented by interactive activities based on play and the use of stimulating educational tools.

The first results are encouraging. Local partners tell us that lə children attend activities regularly, participate with curiosity and have started to interact more with each other in the classroom. They are also starting to express their emotions through drawing, group games and recreational activities, showing a little more confidence day by day.

Once again, it is not simply a matter of moving in an emergency and trying as best we can to respond to urgent needs, but of defending access to fundamental rights by all means.

All this is possible thanks to the generosity of the donorə community that has always supported us and walked with us, enabling us to take immediate action and respond to the requests of our local partners.

Education and child protection remain an indispensable condition for the dignity and future of the new generations. Especially amidst the rubble of a genocide that is not over, it has only stopped making headlines.