In October, WANN published eight stories, conducted four training sessions on writing, and held one activity.
Stories
The untold cost of war: Two Gaza entrepreneurs who lost everything | October 5, 2022 | Ahmed Dremly | Israel imposes arbitrary rules and restrictions regarding visits to Palestinians held in its prisons.
Palestine armbands at the World Cup? | October 6, 2022 | Abubaker Abed | If players can display their support for LGBT rights and Ukraine, they should show their support for Palestine, too.
Stateless in Gaza | October 12, 2022 | Yara Ghanem | How could I be stateless? Is it a geographical happenstance? Or is it a destiny that I should live with forever?
Animals are victims of Israeli wars, too | October 13, 2022 | Slsapeil Abu Lughud | “The cat became nervous because of the sounds of war and started attacking our family.”
What can stop the assault on Palestinian journalists? | October 17, 2022 | Majd Salem | There is no safe place for anyone in Palestine, but I think our journalists are being singled out for harm.
All mothers can hug their sons except us | October 19, 2022 | Ahmed Al-Sammak | Israel’s restrictions on family visits to detainees creates heartbreak across Palestine.
No mercy for prisoners and their families | October 25, 2022 | Yasmin Matar | Israel imposes arbitrary rules and restrictions regarding visits to Palestinians held in its prisons.
How Palestinian prisoners become victims of negligence in Israeli prisons | October 30, 2022 | Lubna Abdelwahab Abuhashem | “I wait for his body. I want to see him. I cry my eyes out every day,” his mother bemoaned.
Events
Pitching for new stories
Oct 1, 2022 | WANNers attended a session on how to pitch their stories, conducted by Rebecca Strong. During the session, Rebecca explained to the writers how to choose the style of their story and how to make their writing appropriate and suitable for the audience.
Small details: a window into the big picture
WANN hosted Jen Marlow and Kate Schwartz, who delivered a session to the writers about generating ideas for new stories out of specific, telling details.
Taking down Marvel: Palestine strikes back
WANN hosted Ra Page, the CEO of Comma Press, who discussed with WANNers the steps of writing a fictional story and establishing the plot. He explained the important literarcy concepts of the hero’s journey and Freytag’s pyramid, using comic book heroes as examples. It was an extremely important session that allowed the writers to learn more details about this type of writing.
Pitching steps
Alice Rothchild, mentor coordinator at WANN, delivered a session on the steps for pitching a story idea to their mentor. At the end of the session, the WANNers showed their written pitch to Alice and received feedback.
Activities
A session on stress management and self-care
In WANN’s role of providing support and care to WANNers, especially after the many Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, the organization contacted the Gaza Community Mental Health Program to provide a one-day session on stress management and self-care.
The session aimed to teach attendees about the concept of mental health and its relationship to human rights. It also provided attendees with a set of skills and techniques for dealing with life stresses, such as relaxation exercises.
Other News
Official page on Wikipedia
WANN has an official page on Wikipedia, which contain the full details about our project!
We Are Not Numbers – From Wikipedia
Social Media Assistant position
WANN interviewed candidates for the position of social media assistant. Mahmoud Mushtaha was selected to fill the position.
Who wrote this?
This activities report was prepared by Mahmoud Mushtaha, the social media assistant at We Are Not Numbers. Mahmoud joined WANN in October 2022. His main areas of interest are human rights in conflict areas, advocating for human rights, and democracy in the world. He is interested in conveying the voices of the victims to the world through writings that reflect and document their suffering.
