Gaza Herald – At just 14 years old, Rama Abdul Aziz Abu Mohammed no longer wakes up to the sound of the school bell or worries about her ninth-grade assignments as she did before the genocide.
Instead, like many girls in Gaza, she searches for small spaces where she can reclaim a piece of her childhood, moments that allow her to breathe amid a harsh reality that has transformed everyday life and forced an entire generation to grow up too soon.
For the past few years, the genocide has placed immense psychological pressure on Rama, who lives in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Education has become intermittent, and safe spaces have become increasingly rare.
But she found something different at the “Girls’ Tent”, a place that offered more than just a way to pass the time. It gave her back something she had long lost: the feeling that her voice mattered and that her ideas had value.
“Before this experience, I was under enormous pressure because of everything happening around us and because of the war,” Rama says. “When I found this space, I began releasing all my negative energy and discovering my true passion. I can honestly say that I discovered myself here.”
For Rama, the transformation did not happen overnight. During the program’s first season, she attended psychosocial support sessions and interactive activities, trying to regain some of the balance the war had taken from her.
As time passed, however, she began discovering her abilities and growing more confident until, in the second season, she became one of the girls leading activities rather than simply participating in them.
That transformation became especially evident during her participation in the “You Are Our Story” initiative, which focused on promoting personal hygiene awareness in displacement camps.
Recalling the experience, she says, “We visited one of the camps and became young session facilitators. We used storytelling to teach younger girls how to care for themselves in ways appropriate for their age.”
During one workshop, the lead facilitator was unexpectedly absent, leaving Rama responsible for leading the entire session. She had never imagined she could do it, but the experience left her with greater self-confidence after realizing that everything she had learned over the previous months had become part of who she is.
The experience was not limited to developing leadership skills. Rama also found a space to express her artistic talents through drawing and creative writing, interests that had little room to grow amid the hardships of war.
At the closing ceremony of the program’s first season, she participated in an exhibition where she displayed her paintings and drawings to the public for the first time.
“I learned how to speak to people and explain my ideas,” she says. “When I displayed my artwork, I finally felt that I had a place where I could show what was inside me.”
Her creative journey continues today as she works with a team producing an educational story series called Noon, one of several initiatives led by the Girls’ Tent participants.
Rama says the changes were noticed not only by those involved in the project but also by her family.
“Every day I came home and told my family what we had learned and the experiences we had inside the tent. They noticed how much my personality had changed, and they always encouraged me to continue.”
Despite the ongoing Israeli genocide and the disruption of her education, Rama says the experience has reshaped the future she envisions for herself.
She dreams of becoming a professional facilitator and studying business administration at university.
She concludes: “I’ve become passionate about community and institutional work. I want to continue on this path and help other girls, just as I found people who helped me.”
