Letters from the workshop Reading and writing letters in solidarity (Poland)

This is the second letter that I write to you. Now you are in Heaven with your brother Tamer, who was 7 years old, and your 2-year-old cousin Nada, and three other relatives. Some people could ask, why bother writing...

from your older siblings in Poland Keep learning. Learn your history, learn about Your home, learn about your land, so you can teach others. Learn how to dance, learn how to sing. We will keep learning from you. We...

You may feel like there is no way. Each path leads to nowhere. You are not alone in this feel of being lost. I believe that it’s easier to be lost with someone or something on your side – for me that’s what childhood...

During a protest organised by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in Poznań, participants - including students and residents of Poznań - wrote letters for Palestinian childhoods. SJP in Poznań writes: As a group of...

We are four friends from Poland – Dominik, Monika, Marta and Misia. Even though we are far away from you, we would you like to get to know you and tell you about the place we come from. There are many red things in our...

Letters produced at an exhibit and workshop at the University of Capet Town, South Africa.

Love letter for the girls and boys of Gaza, Palestine NAKBA May 15, 2024 I wanted to write you a poem but I cried.  I wanted to travel to meet you, hug you, play with you but I never had time because I was...

You are not Forgotten. Dearest, precious, sweet child of Gaza, I know that no words can suffice for what you have been through, for what you are going through at this difficult time, when I take refuge in the pen. But...

Yaaa Weldi, I sit here with all the batanyat, mittens, and bonnets I made Filled with countless dreams unfulfilled for which I had so heartily prayed; Numb by your white, stained, airless Kafan with no name or...

Every day I send my 5-year-old son to Kindergarten with a “love note” in his lunchbox —  A small drawing of a plant or animal with “love you” written underneath. Since your murder, Hind, I have been drawing a love...

I watched holocaust survivor, Marione Ingram,  on democracy now tell us that her heart is breaking because she knows what the children of Gaza are going through - she knows what you are feeling.Her words felt like...

My dear friend, Have you ever heard a grown-up say ‘its complicated’? When a grown-up says this, it’s very rare that it actually IS complicated. This is an answer that grown-ups usually give when they don’t want to...

In your blue skirt and your red blouse, you move so gently, full of joy, as if the world was a wonder and there were no ruins around you. Captured, I glimpse the scene as if on a movie screen. In her black jacket, a...

You remind me of myself; our skin tone similar, our mother tongue similar in origin. I grieve when I wonder; What was I doing at 9 years old? And how by arbitrary chance, our lives are not similar at all. I am in awe...

My daughter, Yasmine, is 12 years old. She is the same age as you.  These days, every time I look at Yasmine, I remember you, and I think about the life you could’ve had, should’ve had. I think of a life all...

Where is the world, you ask.  Does no one see me bereft? Caressing my sister’s cold 1-year old body. Does no one hear our terrorized cries? Amidst the 29,000 (by mid-December) munitions, shells and bombs dropped...

Queridos niños y niñas de Gaza, De todas las fotos y reportajes gráficos que estamos viendo estos dos largos meses, no puedo decir cuál me ha impresionado más. Elijo esta donde aparecéis serios, preocupados, con mirada...

In this allegorical tale, a fox takes over someone’s home, invites all of his friends in, eats all of her food, while the homeowner has to sleep outside on the porch. The story, written in a playful innocent style, is...

During the last two months I have seen so many images from Gaza that have stuck with me. But the little girl having her wounds cleaned while she insistently asked whether this was a dream or reality, whether what...

Paper boats loaded with wishes on their way to the lighthouse that is every girl and boy in Gaza. La imagen "Barcos de papel cargados de deseos camino al faro que es cada niña y cada niño en Gaza" es producto de un...

"They don't have snow days in Palestine, they have military invasion days." -International Solidarity Movement activists, describing Palestinian children's lives under occupation. She said, go play outside, but don’t...

You don’t know me, but I’ve been thinking a lot about you. I first found about you in 2021, when I learned that your home had been bombed by the Israel military. When you fled your home before the bombs...

We wish to share a story with you about a remarkable plant that embodies both strength and sweetness: the watermelon cactus, a symbol of hope and resilience. In a challenging environment, amid ruins, grows the...

Where is my family? I’m still young Where is my family? And our farewell became a destiny Where is my family? Why did this pain happen to me? Where is my family? Blood is all over my walls Where is my family? I opened...

It is silent here From where I sit I can hear the sounds Of me typing on this computer Of me breathing heavy into my thoughts Of my sighing at the impending exhaustion of mundane jobs It is silent here From where I sit...

We prefer a game of cards and reading old books, We prefer the sound of singing  to the siren of an ambulance. We prefer schools with students and hospitals with fuel, We prefer a home to a tent  when the...

The world has failed you and robbed you of your childhoods – you have every right to be angry and cry out about the inhumanity that is being inflicted on you, your families and friends. International conventions that...

Les escribo desde México. Parecería que nuestras tierras están muy alejadas en distancia física pero no lo están en la distancia de nuestros corazones con los de ustedes. Quiero decirles que estoy muy enojada por la...

You’ve been in a dark nightmare for too long. I don’t know if a few days of ceasefire allowed for some relief. I hope so, I hope you're warmed up a bit, I hope you're fed, and I hope you've been able to sleep quietly....

Dear children of Palestine You are as precious as the tiny beads that together shape the words Free Palestine. As each bead is carefully placed, they tell the story of a Free Palestine. I am so sad and angry that you...

This is a photo of a little boy standing in front of a pretend moon. He is three years old. He’s hitting it because he thinks it is a drum, his favourite toy. Above him is the real moon. It’s a crescent shape. He says...

I saw your picture in the first page of a newspaper very far from where you live. You are only 9 years old wearing a non-sleeves T-shirt and barefoot. You were at the morgue, crying and caressing the face of your...

I don’t know your name, and this haunts me. I want to say your name, to keep you alive. Because I don’t know if you are or not. But when I close my eyes, I see you. Your hands are chalked, grey, from the particles of...

My mother was a child of war in a cellar she hid with her mother while the bombs - silent ones which would suddenly burst - crushed homes on the street and she waited for father to return My father was a young man of...

When I was a little girl, I was scared of the dark. I used to slip into my grandmother’s bed in the middle of the night, and nestled against her, all nice and warm, I used to say: “ can you tell me a story?”...

The world is dark outside and in, The noise is scary, Even if you put your fingers in your ears. You are hungry, wet and cold, Where is daddy gone? Why is mummy crying? Why is the world so hostile and unsafe? Home is...

This Saturday, November 25, my daughter Laura turns 4 years old.  She wants a unicorn cake and lots of balloons.  It's hard for me not to have mixed feelings when, while I  buy her balloons and look for...

This is a letter to the 400 children in Beit Lahia, Maghazi, Deir el-Balah and Rafah who joined the Canaan Institute / Centre for Global Education programme in June and produced the most magical arts and crafts. You...

I saw your father holding you, wrapped in white. You were born in this atrocity and killed just two days later. We were told that your death certificate was printed...

I have watched many times the short heart wrenching clip of you mourning the death of your beloved bird, killed due to airstrikes in your community. I am writing to let you know that I have thought of you often with...

I write you as the state of Israel executes a genocide against you. I wonder what would happen if every time the state of Israel kills a Palestinian child, an Israeli Jewish child vanishes? Disappears?  As the...

So much has changed in your life since your 3rd birthday celebrations on the 30th September. Your mum sent me videos then of you riding in a big blue car in an arcade, bouncing up and down with your contagious laugh....

Pienso en ustedes jugando en el Return Park, en el campamento de Malika, y escucho en mi mente sus voces, sus risas, sus gritos de felicidad y de júbilo. Los veo corriendo, saltando y tomándose de las manos, cantando y...

My dear boy and my dear children When my son was 5 years old, he drew these monsters for me, cut them out and stuck them above my bed – they are good helpful monsters. My son told me he made them to protect me and,...

One of the first images I saw coming out of the Gaza bombings was of you.  I saw parts of the clip twice but could not watch the entire video.  I assume you are about 8-9 years old. You were wounded and...

I’m not a cat person. My sister has a cat, she is very mean. But I like your cat. She seems sweet. And I love her because you love her. You saved her from the first floor of a bombed building, while traumatized...

My heart leaps as I watch you race eagerly to slide down the hill. You speed past each other. But you reach out so that you are not separated as the ground flies by. I smile as I see you pulling each other back up the...