With neat handwriting, Palestinian girl Sham al-Abed writes her lessons while leaning against an old school desk, her other hand cradling her notebook as if embracing it after a long absence. Sham had been out of school in the Gaza Strip for two years due to the war.
Sham was sitting with other girls in a classroom at the UNRWA-run Deir al-Balah Elementary Co-educational School when she took a short break to tell a UN News correspondent in Gaza: “I’m here to learn, especially after being out of school for two years. What we need now are notebooks, books, and pens. We want to get our lives back.”
In the same classroom, furnished with whatever old, worn desks and chairs were available, and a few paintings and drawings adorned the walls, her classmate Aseel al-Louh seemed eager to return to school. “We want to learn and play,” she said, “and study all the subjects like we used to. Now we’re only studying Arabic, English, and math.”
