School on the Road in the Central Area

‏Creating Mobile Education in Gaza in the midst of War ‏

Hi, I'm Asma from Morocco, living in Spain. I maintain my identity as a human being by advocating for the innocent and focusing on human rights, particularly children's rights. No innocence compares to theirs. I defend child victims by amplifying their voices, sharing the abuses they endure, and ensuring that important stories are told on behalf of those who lack the means to do so themselves.   

In light of the conflict in Gaza and its resulting impacts, including the destruction of many key infrastructures like educational facilities, I have crossed paths with a remarkable initiative by Noor Abbas Nassar from Gaza.   

Noor Nassar, a 24-year-old Palestinian woman, works as a trained lawyer and a field educator with UNICEF. She came up with a brilliant idea called "Schools Without Borders" to provide education for children in Gaza.   

Noor's idea involves mobile education, where children can receive education regardless of where they are forced to evacuate. This initiative has lit a candle of hope in the midst of darkness for the children living in Gaza, providing them with a glimmer of hope amidst all the loss and destruction they face daily. 

‏Schools Without Borders: A beacon of education in the darkness of war and displacement.  

I am writing to you while being lost between memories of the painful past and the shattered reality, and despite that, I was able to ignite in the darkness a spark of hope and faith in the change for the better.   

My name is Nour Abbas Nassar, 24 years old Palestinian from the occupied Jaffa. I have lived in the city of Rafah since my birth, specifically in the southern Gaza Strip. I spend most of my time in our beautiful city Gaza, despite the destruction that befell it, I still see it as the most beautiful place ever.   

Before October 7, 2023, I was a trainee lawyer, legal researcher, and field educator in one of the UNICEF projects related to positive children education and combating violence against children. I was also a trainer on the subject of conflict transformation and spreading peace, an activist for autistic and disabled children, and I write some touching stories about children's livehood. The thing I love the most is playing and interacting with children.   

I am not in this position to tell my biography yet, but I wanted to mention some of my achievements that I am proud of and that bear witness to my dreams and ambitions that confirms that I am not just a number. I was also pursuing my dream in achieving higher education, more specifically a master's degree abroad, but the war turned my life upside down.  

Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza, I have been in a state of extreme panic that has led to me isolating from my society and the severing of my social contacts and relationships. For 57 days, I locked myself in my room haunted by the ghosts of previous wars like the first painful and horrific scene I saw in 2008 on my way home from school. Where I saw the bodies and limbs of the martyrs in the middle of the street.   

It was the first war I experienced, and I was on the verge of losing my mother, but God saved her by His grace. I pray to God all the time to save my family from this war.I have suffered a lot of pain in the successive wars on the Gaza Strip up till this day, and every time I lose a part of myself.     

While I was living in deep inner isolation, I was thinking about how would I survive this crazy world without going crazy? So I decided to shake off the dust of loneliness and confront the pain and challenge the difficulties. I started to develop and design my annual plan and took the initiative to make an internal change.   

I believe that in order to overcome the darkness outside, we must first overcome the darkness inside us. So I helped my sister draw on the walls of my room in an attempt to breathe new life into me, then I decided to take a tour of my city, whose features had changed. Leading me to return to practicing my old hobby of writing my diaries and made checking on the city’s conditions a new habit.   

Then I started my community activities individually since I always preferred to keep my charitable contributions and donations hidden. Ultimately, I returned to volunteer work in international and local organizations.  

During one of my inspection tours, I was playing in a fun atmosphere with a group of children who were supposed to be in the first grade. When we played the numbers game, they could not count to ten. At that moment, I felt extremely sad for them, as their right to education had been taken away from them and they had forgotten that they were children and were not to blame for what they were going through.   

Then I noticed the sad gestures of one of the children, so I asked her what grade she was supposed to be in? The fifth grade, she answered, so I asked her to say the Arabic alphabet, but she did not succeed in reciting them even once completely. She also told me with her broken eyes that she did not know how to write. I felt let down, so I went back, taking on the responsibility of teaching them.   

That's when I started thinking about helping them and their families. My inner child, who always dreamed of becoming a teacher, woke up and played the role of a little teacher at home and school. I made these hard days an opportunity to fulfill my childhood dream, and I established the mobile school.   

Since I am not specialized in education, I first started by reading about active learning and learning its methods. I reviewed some books on dealing with children. Then I started preparing the initiative plan, identifying the needs and purchasing them. Then I made field trips to random camps to collect data such as the number of children and asking them some questions to find out what they have and what they need in terms of knowledge and how I will start and at what stage.   

I developed an integrated educational program that suits their reality. From here, the “School on the Road” initiative, the mobile foundational school, began to settle in the hearts of children, and light their way towards a better future.   

I was afraid of failure and becoming depressed and isolated inside my shell again, but when I started implementing this program, my anxiety disappeared and my fears dissipated, and I found my way to life and that there is something worth trying. Especially when I found the great interest of children in learning and the encouragement of parents to continue my presence to teach their children.I will attach to you some of the outcomes of this initiative filled with children’s happiness and eyes full of hope in an atmosphere filled with joy.   

The disaster of May 6th, on this morning I became displaced and tasted the bitterness of displacement, and I would like to point out that I wrote this story to you days before my displacement from Rafah, and currently I have stopped implementing the activities of the mobile school due to displacement. But despite the difficulty of moving during displacement, I was able to take our mobile school bag with me to my place of displacement in the Nuseirat camp after I left my warm room, and in these difficult circumstances what I worry about is my withdrawal into myself.   

Despite the anxiety I live with and the harm that has befallen me, I am still determined to complete my education and save the future of our children, and I see in this a lifeline for me from isolation and for the children in order to save them from the darkness of ignorance.   

Now, I need your support to enable this mobile foundational school to continue its noble work and provide education to your children in refugee camps, as every donation, big or small, contributes to building a new generation.   

With your support, we can all save the lives and future of these children and build a brighter path for them and for you and me. Thank you for your support and understanding of my vision, and I would be very grateful for any contribution you make to make my dream and theirs come true. With you, hope flourishes and miracles happen.