Collection: Earth Fixers
Rebuilding Gaza: Palestinian resilience through social enterprise
While Donald Trump and Arab leaders compete over plans to rebuild Gaza, local social entrepreneurs are already providing solutions for students whose universities have been destroyed and children who have lost parents and homes. It’s a journey towards self-sufficiency and independence for the Palestinian people.
More than 46,000 Palestinians killed and 110,000 wounded. About 90 percent of the population forcibly displaced. Over 60 percent of homes and 65 percent of roads destroyed.
How can cities, communities and people’s lives be rebuilt in the aftermath of the devastation Israel has wrought on Gaza? With a fragile ceasefire just about holding, minds have turned to how to recover from such widespread destruction.
On Wednesday, a US$53bn proposal to rebuild Gaza under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority was approved at an Arab League summit in Egypt and endorsed by the UN. The plan reportedly focuses on emergency relief, rebuilding shattered infrastructure and long-term economic development.
Palestinians in Gaza weren’t waiting for people to come. They knew they weren’t coming. So they’re like ‘we’ve got to do what we can to stay alive and continue to exist’
The plan has been developed in response to US president Donald Trump’s ‘Gaza riviera’ idea, which would necessitate a relocation of the Palestinian population and has been widely criticised as effectively endorsing ethnic cleansing. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has said his government is working with the US to implement Trump’s plan.
But while politicians compete over grandiose visions in remote locations, changemakers rooted in their communities are overcoming unthinkable hurdles to get on with the day to day work of meeting the needs of their neighbours, providing safe spaces for students to study, helping children and young people process trauma and grief, and delivering insulin to children with diabetes.
Solar-powered learning centres
After just 100 days of the war, Al-Jazeera reported that every university in Gaza had been destroyed by Israel. Despite the loss of their physical space and most of their lecturers and students being forced to live in temporary accommodation without access to electricity or the internet, some universities have found ways to continue teaching remotely.
In the east of Gaza City, an initiative called Gaza Education Hub has sourced solar panels, secured internet access and, crucially, located a functional workspace to provide 14 men and women with free facilities where they’re able to continue their university studies digitally.
Gaza Education Hub's solar-powered learning centre in Gaza City
The learning space is the second provided by Gaza Education Hub, founded by Mohammed Hajjaj. The first is in Deir Al-Balah in the south of Gaza, where 800 students each week are able to attend virtual classes, complete assignments and connect with their lectures and universities.
In addition to providing necessities which most students in the world take for granted – desk space, electricity, internet access – Gaza Education Hub also offers mental health and emotional support through workshops and counselling services to help students deal with the trauma and stress of surviving in a war zone.
Before the war, Hajjaj was a freelance accountant based in Gaza City, in the north of Gaza. He was forced to flee to the south of Gaza by the Israeli invasion, and has been moving between tents and temporary shelters since. Inspiration for Gaza Education Hub came from Hajjaj’s brother, who struggled to complete a masters degree without access to electricity, the internet or a space to study.
800 students use Gaza Education Hub's Deir Al-Balah learning centre, in the south of Gaza, each week
Hajjaj described the mindset necessary to put so much time, effort and money into creating learning spaces which he knew were at high risk of being imminently destroyed by Israeli bombing. He explained that when everything is in such a state of turmoil, the act of being productive was more important than any sense of permanence: “We had no confidence the space would be safe, we just created. We can’t be sure if we’ll be attacked or not, because every place is under attack.”
The pilot project in Gaza City is part of “starting from new” in the north of Gaza, said Hajjaj, because “everything has been destroyed”. Hajjaj hopes graduates who benefit from Gaza Education Hub’s support will go on to contribute to the rebuilding of Gaza, some literally as engineers, others culturally and economically.
Beyond expanding both learning centres, Hajjaj aims for Gaza Education Hub to develop courses to increase the employability of graduates in remote jobs, including in coding, translation, design and accounting, which are able to bring the global economy to Palestine.
Mutual aid, assistance and support in times of crisis
Gaza Education Hub has been able to provide support to displaced students in part due to backing from BuildPalestine, a social enterprise focused on supporting social innovation within the region.
BuildPalestine has supported Gaza Education Hub and three other community initiatives over the past six months through its Nourishing Hope in Gaza programme. The programme identifies and verifies existing community initiatives which are running crowdfunding campaigns, then amplifies the fundraising efforts with the aim of raising US$5,000- $10,000 for each one.
Anam Raheem is BuildPalestine’s global community organiser. She said when BuildPalestine launched the Nourishing Hope in Gaza programme they expected five to 10 applications. In fact, they received 131 applications in just 10 days.
She said the response of people in Gaza to such dire circumstances, not just to provide for themselves and their families but to fulfil wider community needs, didn’t shock but is still “mind blowing”.
That the organisations supported by the Nourishing Hope in Gaza programme are able to deliver the impact they do is extraordinary, said Raheem. She highlights basic logistical challenges like limited opportunities to charge phones through communal power banks hooked up to generators and the only way to get cash being from shops charging 20% commission.
Before the war there were five universities in Gaza City alone and Gaza has a 99% literacy rate. Raheem believes such high levels of education play a part in people in Gaza, like Hajjaj, being “hungry to do something, in times of relative peace and in times of abject genocide”.
The Palestinian practice of “Al-Awneh,” which translates to “to assist”, is evidence that the principles of social enterprise are deeply rooted in Palestinian culture and are intimately connected to Palestinian solidarity and resilience, according to BuildPalestine’s The Landscape of Social Entrepreneurship in Palestine report, published in 2024.
Al-Awneh embodies concepts of mutual aid, assistance and support throughout a community and often manifests as a local economy that functions on local resources to achieve communal goals. Raheem said this community-oriented culture is “dialed up” as a strength in times of crisis.
Finding hope through creative expression
Another initiative backed by the Nourishing Hope in Gaza programme is Colors for Gaza, founded by Wisam Abualnaja in April 2024. Colors for Gaza delivers art workshops, educational programmes and entertainment events for children and young people.
Through its work, Colors for Gaza helps the children and young people of Gaza, aged seven to 18, navigate emotions of fear, grief and displacement while finding ways to process the realities of the war.
Abualnaja, who has a background in visual arts and sculpture, said she founded Colors for Gaza having witnessed children being forced to focus on survival, dealing with the loss of family members and their homes and unable to enjoy crucial childhood experiences like playing with friends and going to school.
Colors for Gaza's workshops give children and young people a creative outlet for emotions like grief, fear and anger
She said: “This crisis has profoundly affected their mental health, sense of safety and overall well-being. Many exhibit overwhelming emotions such as fear, grief, anger and bereavement.”
With the children’s heightened vulnerability significantly influencing their mood and behaviour, Abualnaja feared the experiences would result in long-term physical, psychological, and medical consequences for an entire generation. With other local organisers, parents and creatives she developed the idea for safe, creative spaces where children and young people could express themselves, process their experiences, and find hope amid the most challenging of circumstances.
To illustrate Colors for Gaza’s work, Abualnaja describes a workshop called The Storyteller, delivered at Al-Qarshali Camp in Al-Zawayda. Fifteen children aged between seven and 10 years old took part in a two-hour session, which explored themes of identity, meaningful memories of home, and hope. By taking on the role of storytellers, these children could expand their imaginations, find solutions to challenges, and help their imaginary characters navigate life experiences.
Colors for Gaza has supported more than 400 children and young people since it launched in April 2024
Since it launched, Colors for Gaza has supported more than 400 children and young people. Gathered from verbal feedback due to lack of resources, 50% of the young people reported experiencing positive moments of well-being during the workshops.
The initiative has also provided employment for eight creative freelancers based in Gaza, as well as providing them with access to resources and training.
Abualnaja is now actively seeking additional funding to enable Colors for Gaza to develop a more structured youth development programme and secure more consistent spaces to deliver its workshops. Other ambitions include offering comprehensive mental health support and creative mentorship opportunities.
Palestinian self-sufficiency through social enterprise
Between the Israeli blockade on aid into Gaza and Donald Trump’s USAID freeze, Raheem said it has never been more apparent that Palestine’s reliance on foreign aid needs to end and be replaced with self-reliance, which she believes can be led by social enterprise.
She said: “Palestinians in Gaza weren’t waiting for people to come. They knew they weren’t coming. So they’re like ‘we’ve got to do what we can to stay alive and continue to exist.’ For people who want to make a real difference, investing in Palestinian social entrepreneurs themselves will always be the most efficient, most transparent and most impactful way to help us.”
Raheem believes the USAID freeze is an opportunity for Palestine to move away from a funding source which was always more focused on US soft power than Palestinian’s best interests and towards a system which trusts Palestinian communities to make decisions about their own needs.
The Landscape of Social Entrepreneurship in Palestine report says social enterprise can empower Palestinians in their decolonising and state-building journey, helping to dismantle oppressive systems by building self-sufficiency and economic independence. This can consequently pave the way towards political independence.
For BuildPalestine itself, Raheem said the organisation’s impact is limited by its size – it only has four employees – and they are concerned the Nourishing Hope in Gaza programme could hit a point of donor fatigue.
But it is taking steps to mitigate this. This week, the organisation announced the launch of the Falafel Theory Innovation programme, which aims to train 1,300 Palestinian changemakers in one year to design and scale community solutions to local challenges.
The programme is delivered in partnership with Hikmat Palestine, a social change initiative founded by Palestinian refugee and entrepreneur Maher Kaddoura. The Falafel Theory is Kaddoura’s brainchild, championing simple, repeatable and scalable solutions to tackle complex challenges.
BuildPalestine describes the Falafel Theory Innovation programme as “a movement empowering Palestinian youth to think differently, innovate and lead change”, once again focusing on Palestinian enterprise and self-sufficiency as the best route to a safe and prosperous Palestine.
Top image: Wisam Abualnaja at a Colors for Gaza workshop
|
|
