Stories
In June, WANN published seven stories, news items, and poems.
June 1, 2022 | In her poetic words, our writer Shahid Safi describes Palestine from her point of view.
June 1, 2022 | Ruba Sarraj talks about her traveling experience and the challenges she had.
June 11, 2022 | Sahar Alzamli shares her journey as a new writer with We Are Not Numbers.
Art for more than the eyes June 9, 2022 | Ahmed Al-Sammak writes about Timaa Hassan, a Palestinian artist whose target audience includes people with visual impairment.
Processing Palestine’s tragedy through art
June 19, 2022 | Issam Adwan writes about the art exhibit featuring Zainab Al-Qoulq, a Palestinian women who lost 22 members of her family in the recent aggression on Gaza.
June 20, 2022 | “Misreporting Palestine” is an interview that Palestine Deep Dive conducted with Ahmed Alnaouq.
June 23, 2022 | Abubaker Abed explains how difficult it is for the people of Gaza to attend the football matches this year in Qatar.
See all stories.
Events
WANN helps build up our writers, through writing of course, but also through educational, civic, and cultural activities.
Gaza FreeStyle Festival ̶ Women’s Forum
June 4-6 2022 | In cooperation with the Italian Exchange Center and other Palestinian NGOs, We Are Not Numbers participated in the Italy — Gaza FreeStyle Festival Women’s Forum. More than 30 Italian and 140 Palestinian women participated in this three-day event, exchanging perspectives and engaging in cross-cultural events and workshops.
The Forum was part of the Gaza FreeStyle Festival, which is an international project originating in Milan (Italy) to help people from the Gaza Strip by using street culture to promote positive messages in a land that’s been facing everyday conflicts for yearsThe first day provided a general introduction to the forum and a chance to expand ties between the participating institutions.
During the second day, a group of Italian women gave the WANNers a practical workshop on self-empowerment. Elitta, an Italian photographer, encouraged participants to tell their stories through the camera lens by taking photos of themselves, their colleagues, and subjects that represent them. The Women’s Forum concluded with a presentation by each participating institution about its role during the forum.
Induction Day for the New 2022 Cohort
June 9 2022 | The Gaza staff of WANN met the new WANNers during Induction Day for the 2022 cohort. Thirty-five writers were accepted from a pool of 206 applicants. Our new WANNers are full of enthusiasm, and they also have amazing talents — they are leaders, singers, artists, and horseback riders. Members of the new cohort will participate in an extensive six-month training program on writing and storytelling, which started immediately with a series on advanced writing skills (see below).
Watch our video about the new WANN cohort.
Exploring the Impact of Rhetoric with Akram Habeeb
June 12, 2022 | The first training session with the new WANNers was conducted by Akram Habeeb, Ph.D., a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza. Dr. Habeeb taught about the importance of rhetoric in the English language.
Generating, Expanding, and Developing Personal Narrative with Refaat Alareer
June 14, 2022 | Refaat Alareer, a professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, explicated samples of published stories from international websites such as Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss to highlight the important elements that writers should focus on. For example, he explained how to start with an engaging introduction and how to divide the text with succinct subheads, both of which encourage the reader to keep reading.
Proper Spelling and Punctuation with Ihab Sulaiman
June 16, 2022 | The training by Ihab Sulaiman, lecturer at the Islamic University of Gaza, focused on proper spelling and punctuation. As part of his teaching, he displayed sentences with grammatical mistakes for the participants to find. The session included both individual and group activities.
How to Make Short Films with Ahmed Hammed
June 26, 2022 | Ahmed Hammed, a Palestinian interdisciplinary artist from the Gaza Strip, taught the WANNers about how to make short films. The session aimed at giving the floor to our writers to describe the short films that they plan to produce.
Show Don’t Tell with Jen Marlow and Kate Schwartz
June 27, 2022 Jen Marlow, an award-winning author, filmmaker, playwright, and human rights activist, and Kate Schwartz, public engagement manager at Just Vision, conducted activities focusing on building texts based on pictures from real life. Our writers were able to describe those pictures from their perspectives.
Components of a Good Essay with Alice Rothchild and Catherine Baker
June 29, 2022 | Alice Rothchild and Catherine Baker explained the components of a good essay and discussed what makes an essay or a story enjoyable to read. They identified essays published at WANN that they particularly admired and explained why. Dr. Rothchild is an American obstetrician-gynecologist (retired), Palestinian human rights activist, and author. Ms. Baker is a writer and editor with many published print and web publications on science, health, and education topics.
Feature Story Writing with Maha Hussaini
June 30, 2022 | Maha Hussaini, the strategy director of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and an award-winning journalist based in Gaza, focused on the topic of feature story writing. This session focused on the importance of developing feature writing skills, which can have a great impact on their future careers.
Closing Session on Advanced Writing Skills
June 29, 2022 | After a month of training about different topics related to advanced writing skills, our writers applied what they learned through an intensive writing activity that demonstrated how the writers are working together toward a shared purpose
Our staff divided the WANNers into two groups. Each writer wrote a draft essay on a piece of puzzle. And after finishing, each group’s members assembled their pieces into a completed picture.
Deep Dive Interview with WANNer on “Misreporting Palestine”
June 21, 2022 | “We the Palestinians have been suffering at the hands of the Israelis for the past 74 years, and to some extent we are used to the suffering,” says Ahmed Alnaouq in a June 15 interview for the online show Palestine Deep Dive.
WANN published a brief report on Ahmed’s interview, which contains a link to the interview itself.
Making a Video
June 30, 2022 | In collaboration with PIPD/Rābet, a new digital platform that seeks to connect Palestine to the world and mobilize people everywhere to support Palestinian liberation, We Are Not Numbers created a video delivering the words of the youth of Gaza on what it has meant for them to grow up under Israel’s brutal, 15-years-long siege. Several of our WANNers spoke about their own experiences. Rābetoo in Arabic is a call for steadfastness and sumud.
Who wrote this?
This activities report was prepared by Somaia Abunada, social media coordinator for We Are Not Numbers. Her name means “a little sky.” Her parents gave her that name because they believe that one day she will be a great person with outstanding achievements, reaching high places in society. Somaia has a master’s degree in translation studies, a bachelor’s degree in English literature, and a diploma in English education. In addition to serving on the WANN team, she also works as an English trainer, translator, and writer. She is a self-confessed workaholic, always seeking new horizons that can empower her, expand her knowledge, and enhance her personality.
