FIRST REPORT FROM GAZA

The first weekly report by Palestinian correspondent Sami Abu Omar for GSI Italia’s Health Campaign for Palestine, which takes us not to the rubble of destruction in Gaza but to a tent school in the Strip, during a lively children’s celebration.

A live link is underway between the Falcone School in Rome and a tent-school in the Strip to celebrate a twinning arrangement involving an ongoing exchange of drawings and songs. In the footage, the children in Rome sing ‘Bella ciao’, a song sung all over the world, stripped of the divisive political connotations it carries in Italy, and simply expressing a desire for freedom and the fight against violence and oppression. A bridge of solidarity to express the friendship between children separated by thousands of kilometres, yet brought closer together by their shared youth and a song.

In Gaza, over 630,000 young people have no classrooms and are forced to study, live, eat and sleep in tents, within which Gazan teachers strive daily to restore a sense of normality. A twinning project between the tent-schools of Gaza and Italian schools breaks the shackles of isolation and gives strength to the children, teachers and families on one side, and to the wider community on the other.

GSI Italia intends to launch, starting with this first report by Sami, a twinning programme between Italian and Palestinian schools, facilitating contact and promoting meetings, with a view to bridging educational gaps in Palestine on the one hand and, in a different way, in Italy on the other.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1HT2nmiR6Z/