Sokaina Girls School is in Deir al Balah City, in the middle of the Gaza Strip. ‘Deir al Balah’ means ‘Monastery of Palms’. There used to be thousands of palm trees in the area, but today few remain. Now, the city houses several refugee camps. Some 25,000 refugees live in Deir al Balah camp.
The girls of the Sokaina school decided they wanted a library. Most schools in Gaza don’t have one. And those that do usually have a limited range of books. The students knew that it wouldn’t be easy – they would be challenging social attitudes about what girls can do – but they wanted to prove that they could create a beautiful library inside their school.
UNICEF gave the girls seed funding of US$300, and they went to the market to buy books. They had never been to the market before. Every day they would travel only between home and school.
“It’s unusual in Gaza for adolescent females to go to the market alone and collect boxes and interact with shopkeepers,” said Marah, one of the 40 students who collected books and built the library.
Unfortunately, when they got there, the girls realized that US$300 would buy barely 30 books and would leave nothing for shelves and seats.
They came up with another solution. In an empty classroom, they built shelves from wooden boxes and seats from old tyres. Then they asked several NGOs for donations and received 500 books. Early this year, their library was born.
Today, the library at Sokaina school is open six days a week for all students. Sokaina, like most schools in Gaza, operates double shifts of classes to make up for a shortfall of 232 schools. The Education Ministry has supported the girls’ initiative by providing tables, chairs and more books. And the girls have organized a committee to manage the library and keep adding to their collection.
Nonetheless, the environment of Gaza is deteriorating to such an extent that the United Nations believes it could be unlivable by 2020. Residents live trapped in such a small area – about 45 km long and between 6 to 14 km wide. It’s been 10 years since people and goods could move freely in and out. Residents have lived through three wars in that time. Water is scarce, but the needs and the pollution are huge, which means our water aquifer is being depleted at a rate that is causing irreparable damage. Electricity cuts of up to 20 hours a day mean that raw sewage is pumped into the sea and the stench fills whole neighbourhoods. People are poor, and this grinding poverty just keeps getting worse. Parents live day to day trying to keep hope alive for their children, but fearful they will not be able to keep going.
Gaza could be unlivable by 2020. But some believe it’s only environmental. It’s also the mentality of people, the slow grinding loss of hope as they see each day things getting a little bit worse. Everyone needs hope, especially young people. If hope dies, in any place, then there is always the risk of young people turning to risky behaviour and even violence.
Contributed by: Yasmeen Jaafar https://kristawelz.wixsite.com/literacyheroes/forum-1/middle-east/library-in-gaza-strip
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