Noor Hossam

Noor is 22. She grew up in Gaza, and she has spent her young adult life surrounded by war. Yet when she looks at the children around her, she sees what they have lost: their sense of safety.

A graphic design graduate, Noor trained in psychosocial support through the COOPI project and began leading sessions for children at Al-Jinan School in Gaza City. With play, drawing, conversation, and group games, she gave children a way to say what they couldn’t put into words.

Many of the girls arrived carrying the weight of war: social anxiety, and the strain of being displaced again and again. One girl found it hard to speak, even to her own mother and sister.

Over the sessions, something shifted. The girl slowly began to talk again. “The confidence you have has reflected on me,” she told her facilitator. Her mother noticed too: “She has started to reconnect with us again.”

Another parent saw a change in her daughter’s behavior and how she related to others.

The moments Noor holds on to most are small ones. After one session, a child told her, “Today I felt happy, I want to stay with you, Miss.” At the end of another, the children rushed to hug her, telling her how much they loved her. “I felt overwhelming happiness inside, as though my heart was fluttering with joy.”

That is what keeps her going. “Seeing smiles on their faces and knowing they feel comforted, even for a short time, gives me the motivation to continue despite all the challenges.”