Hope amidst despair: a Gazan teacher’s New Year wish
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Actually, all days are the same here in Gaza. Like we could barely know the date. Most people don't look to their calendar because they just don't care. As the world looks forward to a better 2025, time has lost its meaning for many living in the war-torn streets of Gaza. I'm tired.

Yes, when I go to the street, when I present myself in front of the students, I try to stay strong. I cry from inside, but I have a smile on my face. After five months, we reconnected with Ahmad Rizik, the founder of education project Gaza Great Minds, to hear what he and others in Gaza are hoping for in the new year. It's a hard question being asked to a Gazan living in this genocide for over a year now.

But if there's a wish, if there's hope, I hope. It's Monday, December 30th. Hello, Ahmad? Yes, hi, brother. How are you? Good. I'm glad I finally hear back from you. How are you? Good. You look very cozy. Is it cold in Gaza at the moment? Yes, it is. It's really, really cold. I can't believe it's been four or five months since

since we last spoke. I've been following your account on X or Twitter and it looks like your project, the Gaza Great Minds is still ongoing. How's this program so far? Now we are providing education for over 1500 students in all cities in Gaza. We have five schools

in many cities in Gaza. And we are become bigger everyday passes. We are trying to improve ourselves and try to help as much as we can from our lovely young angels, our students.

I recall that the last time we spoke, you had two locations, one in the north, one in the south. So over the past few months, you were able to expand the number of schools from two to now five locations. Is that correct?

Yes, exactly. Five schools in five different areas in Gaza. How's the classroom condition for the students? Because one thing that I remember so well from our first conversation is that you were building classrooms out of eight parachutes.

What about these three new schools, new locations? Are the children studying in a better environment? I wish if I can say yes, but the environment is still the same.

Because Israel like prevent building anything expect or accept tents So the class conditions are simply tense there are 10 schools with what we can provide from furniture and some classes we managed to to bring our fish for artificial grass for them and in the other part of

of the city where there's no grass there, we managed to bring some carpets. So we are trying to make a simple class with the minimum furniture that we managed to bring because simply we are in war. So what we are trying to do is using the simple thing that we still managed to provide and try to get back to our education again.

And do you have access to enough funding and foods, especially foods for everyone?

Unfortunately not. We try to go to everyone who can help, like big organizations, ONRWA and other organizations in order to bring only food for us or even anything that we can give to our students. For example, nutrition from the borders, maybe a milk or anything. But unfortunately, no one managed to help us.

Only one organization, which is Heal Palestine, managed to bring some food and nutrition to us in our tent here and only for one tent in the north of Gaza because of the situation.

What we are trying to provide from time to time, and bring meals, but not for all the students. We only provide food every day for 200 students. As I said before, we have over 1,500. So we are giving only about 10% of our students food. And this is because first, there's not enough food in the markets. And if there is some food in the market, it will be very, very expensive.

and we are like individuals working to make this project happen. Even though the funding and the foods are very limited, but I'm glad that you still managed to grow your project, the Gaza Great Mines, from two locations to now five campuses.

but I've been reading your posts on Twitter or X and I could read from your posts that from time to time that personally you've had some dark moments since we spoke a few months ago so the project seems to be doing well but in terms of yourself

How are you holding up? I'm not. I'm really broken from my side, if I could say so. But I can't, you know, just lay down and grieve. I wish if I could just stand in the center of the city and just scream because I'm really, really sad. But I can do this because I'm responsible now, not just for the children.

or of the children but also my family after my father was killed i'm the only one who can take care of the rest of the family so i will be lying when you if i told you that i'm okay i remember a video from you that you were appealing to everybody to never stop talking about gaza and i'm just wondering does it scare you that maybe someday

It may be happening right now that people's attention will just slowly drift away from Gaza. Yes, because now they are the only hope for us. Believe me, we are only hoping now on the people, not on the governments. And if we lose them, it means like literally there will be no hope of a free Palestine.

There's people who can make a difference, not the government. But inside Gaza, do you think people around you are getting numb on what's going on around them? No. They pretend that they are, just to stay strong. But no. I'm talking like a father and...

I'm tired. Yes, when I go to the street, when I present myself in front of the students, I try to stay strong. I cry from inside, but I have a smile on my face just to not let them, like, down, you know? And I think every cousin, like, is the same. We will never get, like, get used to these madness scenes that we see. No one can.

No human can do this. Even if he tried to do, even if he's strong, when you see every couple of days a body here or there being eaten by the dogs and you can just stare and you can do anything, no, you will not get used to it. You can just hide your feelings in order to not being destroyed from your inner feeling. You know what I mean?

To not let the desperate feelings get the best of you and to stay positive. Like you said, putting on a smile when you go out. Yes. One thing from our previous conversation, people around you, including yourself, have been trying to rebuild a normal life, even living among all these uncertainties around you.

And now at the end of this year, 2024, and all around the world, I think a lot of people are celebrating, are looking forward to a better year in 2025. But for people inside Gaza, do you think people are excited about the new year at all? Actually, all days are the same here in Gaza. Like,

Like we could barely know the date. Most people don't look to their calendar because they just don't care. But for me personally, I really wish or hope to stay alive till the next year. Not just this war to end. I'm just hoping to stay alive. I don't hope, like I don't think that this war will end.

at the end of the year, but I just hope to stay alive just to live the new year. Maybe if we rewind the clock back to the end of last year, many people wouldn't expect this war to continue all the way till the end of 2024. But I'm thinking that people often say children are the hope of the future.

And that's what your initiative has been dedicated to, providing education to the next generation. And your campuses have expanded to five locations now. What do your students think about their future? I mean, are they hopeful for their future? Actually, it's a very good question. You know, when we first started,

And we were like, can we make a difference? We saw that the students have really been affected from this war regarding their morals, how they behave. But now, after about five or seven months from this start, I can really see a wonderful generation that we have in Gaza. A generation of doctors, engineers, artists,

They are, you know, we have every three to four months, we have a graduation party in order to bring more students. And yesterday we had one. You know, most of our students didn't want to leave the tent. They didn't want to stop their education. They just want to keep on because they believe and they can see that these tents are the only hope for the future.

Because outside that tent, the students go and suffer a lot with filling the gallons of water to go in lines for a bag of food or even for charging the phone. But when they are in the tent, they are respected, sitting in their chair with a notebook and pencil and try to write simply, even when they are hearing the drones and the F-16s

16 warplanes hovering above our heads, but at least they are treated inside the tent as children. And this is why our students are happy. For teachers like you and many other parents, do you find it difficult to tell the students and the next generation that it's going to be better? We have to say this, even if we don't believe it.

Because they don't deserve the life that we lived, like my generation or the parents' generation. At least if we can tell them the truth, we can leave that candle of hope inside their hearts. Maybe one day they will see a future. Brother, I'm talking to you after surviving from four wars now.

And I can tell you how it's really, really difficult to live in a war zone and try to be a successful person. There are many challenges. And we also keep telling the students that all wars that happened, they reach a day or an ending day. It means the war worlds one and two will end and only this will end one day.

And we told them even if it didn't, you need to continue studying because this is the weapon that you are fighting. Everyone is trying to fight the way that he sees fit. And we are fighting with our knowledge, with our education. As we spoke earlier that you've had some dark moments along the way over the past few months, you've had many doubts.

But now at the end of 2024, would you still have hopes for the next year, 2025? And if you are going to make a wish and let the whole world listen, what will that wish be for 2025? It's a hard question being asked to a Gazan living in this genocide for over a year now. But if there is a wish, if there is hope,

I hope to stay alive simply because we see death every day. I don't know, even after this interview, maybe I would be killed just because I'm a Gazan. So I wish myself, my students, my teachers, my friends to stay alive. That's everything. I can't wish anything more than that. I believe that those are

the top wishings to all gods just to stay alive for another day. I don't know how to respond to that but I just want to say I really appreciate having the opportunity to speak with you for the second time after almost a half year and I really really hope my I mean my wish for

this coming year is that I will be able to speak with you again sometime in the future. I hope that too. Thank you. And that concludes our last episode in 2024, brought to you by me, Li Yunqi, and my colleagues Zhang Zhang and Qi Zhi. As we wrap up this final episode of the year, we want to thank you for tuning into our podcast throughout 2024.

Please leave a comment to let us know how you like this program and what you would like to hear more about in 2025. And thank you for being part of the story of Ahmad Rizik, who's fully dedicated to youth education in Gaza. We'll see you next year.