Only Palestinians with foreign passports are allowed to leave the Gaza Strip. The rest are trapped in what has become a deadly war zone. But then there are some who want to travel in. The Palestinian Awni Farhat is one of them. During the ceasefire at the end of November, he was allowed to cross the border from Egypt. – It was scary. You feel on your body that you are traveling from a safe area to a war zone. You hear the drones in the air and the smell of the bombs. He grew up with his family in Gaza, but moved to the Netherlands to study. Today he works with human rights, especially against Palestinians. – It was heartbreaking to see my family again. Seeing them living in a tent in a refugee camp when they had previously lived in a nice house was hard, Farhat told news. One of his sisters was killed in an attack at the start of the war, and now he wanted to be close to his parents, the rest of his siblings and his uncles. But he also had a job to do. He himself has experienced three wars in the Gaza Strip, and seen how hard it is on the children. When he traveled in, he had a goal. To make everyday life with war a little more enjoyable for the youngest. There are approximately one million children living in the Gaza Strip. In recent months, thousands of them have lost both parents and siblings in Israeli bomb attacks. The neighborhood they grew up in is flush with the ground. All the routines are gone. – The children are traumatized. They have seen so much. They don’t know how to handle it. This is trauma that even adults cannot deal with, he says. Before entering Gaza, Farhat began planning an activity offer for the children. He contacted musicians, circus performers, storytellers, educators and stage performers. Together they made a plan, with help from the Red Cross in Egypt. When he came in, they started by setting up tents outside the refugee camp in Rafah. The area was dubbed the “children’s village”. But here they have to be creative, because funds are scarce. Fortunately, they are lucky to have the clown “Uncle Misho” on the team. The children follow his movements closely. He dances, tricks, acts and absolutely makes everyone smile, in the end. But the children are on constant alert, and many of them are skeptical at the start. It usually takes some time before they are able to relax. That is why it was important that trauma treatment was part of the offer, says Farhat. In safe surroundings, children can talk to adults about what they have experienced and what feelings they are praying for. Dance, song and play are on the program when the 250 children enter the children’s village in Rafah. Photo: Said Khatib / AFP – People cope with the war so differently. Some stay quiet, some cope well, others can become violent. – When you are subjected to violence and misery for such a long time, violence becomes for many the only way they manage to handle their feelings, says Farhat. He is worried about what could happen if the trauma is not dealt with, and the spiral of violence is allowed to continue. The volunteer group contributes. The initiative, which has been named the Palestinian Humanitarian Response Campaign, offers music, theatre, reading fairy tales, games and play. The purpose is to remove some of the stress they feel, give them routines and ensure that they also have good memories of the war. Through the tiny children’s village, they reach 250 children. Save the Children reported in November on a number of symptoms of trauma among children in Gaza as a result of war. Among the symptoms were anxiety, worries, nightmares, bad memories, insomnia, loss of feelings and withdrawal from family. Farhat believes that the world cannot wait until after the war to offer trauma treatment, both to adults and children: – The need is enormous, greater than ever. We cannot wait until the war is over. Those we can protect, we must protect.
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– They have seen too much – Special
