Amid rubble, in makeshift tents on the streets, teams of teachers try to bring together children and teenagers in Gaza to try to guarantee not only their right to education, but also to offer psychosocial support and, in the face of so many deaths, to try to remind them of their own humanity. This is the work of the Center for Creativity for Teachers, a Palestinian non-profit organization.
The organization’s general director, Refaat Sabbah, was in Fortaleza, Global Education Summit and talked to the news Brazil Agency: “education is not just teaching students to read and write, it is also teaching them about life, in the midst of crisis”.
“It is also teaching them how to deal with social problems because, in the world, people become selfish and, sometimes, lose solidarity. I can tell you, there is no education without a clear and solid definition of what it means to be a human being.”
Since the start of war on the strip from Gaza, Israel killed more than 43 thousand Palestinians, almost 19 thousand of whom are children, according to the Palestinian Federation in Brazil. According to the United Nations (UN), until mid-October, 1.9 million people, corresponding to 91% of the population of Gaza, had to move within its own territory.
“Sometimes I think I’m in a nightmare. Which is not reality. In the morning, I wake up and think: is this really true? What is happening?” says Sabbah.
According to him, the Creativity Center for Teachers served more than 200 thousand children and around 100 thousand families. “We help them try to understand and deal with the feelings they are having. Mothers who don’t know how to deal with children who lost their parents in the war and children who don’t know how to deal with deaths”, he says.
The Center is inspired by the ideals of Brazilian thinker and educator Paulo Freire. Sabbah himself cites the concept of a school without walls, which is a unit integrated with the community and also that there is no neutral education.
In Gaza, it is impossible to shut yourself up in schools, ignoring the reality around you. Even because many of these institutions no longer exist. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Education Monitoring (GEM) 2024 report, 61% of schools in Gaza were directly affected.
“We started to create open schools, schools without walls, because Israel destroyed everything. The idea is to build schools no matter where, in the rubble, in tents, in the streets. Just start with the kids who are scared.”
And he explains: “through education, it is possible to help students, teachers, children to understand the problem and the ideology. What is happening? Why is the United States doing this? Why is Israel doing this? Why are they killing people without any mercy? Why are they destroying children’s homes, history and future?”
Sabbah is also a member of the High-Level Steering Committee to guarantee UN Sustainable Development Goal number 4, focused on education, and president of the Global Campaign for Education, a civil society movement aimed at guaranteeing the right to education around the world .
Participating in international meetings, like the one that took place in Fortaleza, is also a time to talk about the genocide that is taking place in Gaza and seek support.
“We were shocked by the silence of most countries, even though, officially, I know that people, in general, support Palestinian rights and are against genocide. I came straight from Palestine here because I believe that this space can help, that we can talk.”
*The reporter traveled at the invitation of the Ministry of Education
