Sharjah, June 19, 2024 On World Refugee Day, let’s shift our perspective. Rather than focusing solely on what we can provide to refugees, let us acknowledge the depth and immensity of the life lessons we can learn from their resilience, strength and their human spirit. As I share this observation, there are over of these lessons coming out of Gaza, whose people, though fraught by an unprecedented humanitarian crisis for over 250 days, continue to teach us that in the age where nations enjoy their most advanced militaries the world has even seen, the power of collective human spirit is undefeatable.
It still is our greatest global strength. In a city turned to rubble, amid catastrophic levels of starvation, collapsed healthcare and education systems, and deprived of the very basic human amenities needed to support life, the Gazan people teach us invaluable life lessons each day as they demonstrate their immense power of collective endurance and community spirit. Have you heard about ‘ ’? The brainchild of a 24-year-old Palestinian lawyer and UNICEF educator, Nur Nassar, the mobile education initiative was a response to the in the past seven months, and continues to bring education to displaced Palestinian children regardless of where they have to evacuate to.
This is but one amongst millions of stories of resilience that not just Palestinian people but forcibly displaced communities worldwide continue to display in the face of crisis to meet critical unmet humanitarian n.
