(28 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rafah, Gaza Strip - 25 December 2023
1. Various of dozens of children enjoying singing and dancing during volunteer team activities at Mawasi camp in Rafah
2. Various of volunteer Shorouq Taha playing the Tanoura dance with children
3. Volunteers playing music, dancing with children
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Shorouq Taha, volunteer:
“We came here with this initiative to alleviate the negative energy that entered the hearts of our children after the bombings, sorrow, and pain they have experienced. We are here to work to the best of our ability, utilizing a comprehensive team to organize activities aimed at bringing joy, happiness, and laughter to the children. Our goal is to help them return to their homes feeling comfortable.“
5. Various of children dancing and jumping
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Shorouq Taha, volunteer:
“Playing with them is a very beautiful feeling. We are happy when we engage with them and provide support. Personally, I have started to play like them to release my own stress, and the children around me do the same. Inside me, there is also a significant amount of pressure, we were displaced from the north (of Gaza) to Khan Younis and then to the Rafah shelter center. We are trying to renew the energy within us and transform it into positive energy.“
7. Various of children playing with watercolors, printing their hands onto papers
8. Displaced Palestinian Cherine al-Faqawi, from Khan Younis, with her children
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Cherine al-Faqawi, displaced Palestinian from Khan Younis:
“My children were affected a lot by what happened to them, we were sitting at home talking together safely and suddenly we felt the ceiling of the house falling on us, I was the first one coming out of the house and I thought that my children had been martyred, some of them came out with blood on their heads and some of them were wounded, and others were crying.“
10. Close of Faqawi’s daughter’s face
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Cherine al-Faqawi, displaced Palestinian from Khan Younis:
“They are quite comfortable here through songs and play, this relieved them and their psyche, which is better than the pressures they live, they need it on a daily basis. “
12. Children dancing, playing
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud Farhat, volunteer:
“People are living here who love life. We deliver our message to the world that we are the makers of peace and love and safety that is absent in these situations in which we live (war).“
14. Wide of kids playing between tents in the camp
STORYLINE:
A team of volunteers working in southern Gaza has come together to help displaced children at a refugee camp in Rafah overcome the trauma of war.
The volunteers, who are themselves displaced amid the Israel-Hamas war and come from different professional fields, have all had expertise working with young people.
The team's goal was to look after some 300 children in the Mawasi camp left without any protection or care and to focus on trauma relief through activities such as games, music, dancing, and circus performances.
“We came here with this initiative to alleviate the negative energy that entered the hearts of our children after the bombings, sorrow, and pain they have experienced," said Shorouq Taha, one of the volunteers.
"We are here to work to the best of our ability, utilizing a comprehensive team to organize activities aimed at bringing joy, happiness, and laughter to the children," she added.
"Inside me, there is also a significant amount of pressure," she said. "“Playing with them is a very beautiful feeling."
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