We Are Not Numbers (WANN), a project of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, held a graduation ceremony for young writers in Gaza, on December 20, 2022. The project aims to tell the stories behind the numbers of victims of human rights violations that are reported in the news.
WANN celebrated the graduation of 35 young male and female Palestinian writers from the Gaza Strip and other locations around the world. The project implements two recruitments a year and provides participants with six months of training about human rights, basic writing skills, creative writing, debating, and addressing Western audiences.
What distinguishes the project is that it connects Palestinian writers with native speakers and English language specialists as their mentors, and links the writers in a culturally, literarily, and politically besieged sector with the outside world through publishing their features.
During the ceremony, Maha Hussaini, strategy director at the Euro-Med Monitor, said, “We Are Not Numbers is not just a project launched by a human rights organization, but rather an idea, a fact that the world needs to understand and realize: that every Palestinian living under occupation is a distinctive story by itself, and no one could tell the story better than the one who’s living it.
“At We Are Not Numbers, we do not tell the stories of people living under occupation; rather we give these people the microphone to tell their own stories.”
In her words to the graduates, project manager Enas Ghannam, said: “Being at WANN is a phase that will never end, and a step forward to becoming the ambassadors of victims in the Palestinian territory, for you are not like anyone else. Your country needs you, the world needs you, and humanity needs to hear from you. So raise your voices, speak up, and make us proud to have young people like you representing their society.”
During 2022, WANN published more than 100 stories, poems, and articles; cooperated with 35 international and local organizations; hosted 35 international and national speakers; participated in 9 interviews, podcasts, and social media lives on international TV; arranged paid opportunities for 22 developing youth leaders; and produced 7 films.
During the ceremony, three of the graduating writers shared some of their experiences in the project. “WANN has never been only about writing,” said Sara Hegy, 20 and a third-year English student. “Through all the topics that we had sessions on, like human rights, journalism, and mental health, many new truths unfolded to me.”
Abdallah Nasrallah, 19, also shared remarks about his experience at WANN. “When I started my training period, I didn’t realize I would be embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime experience that would change my whole perspective of the world. I was taught what every writer needs to know by highly qualified trainers and learned an immense amount of information.”
Nasrallah added that he is “super proud” of his accomplishments through WANN. “I’ve published my first story, Forced to relive the past five wars, with WANN, which helped me co-publish it at Mondoweiss.”
It was important to honor those writers who were most committed and active during the six months of training. For this, the WANN staff created a video to honor the 12 most active and published writers from this cohort.
The ceremony ended by recognizing each writer and presenting them with a certificate of participation and a letter of recommendation.
Euro-Med Monitor launched WANN in 2015, with a mission is to tell the human stories behind the numbers of victims in the news by training young writers on journalistic and story writing and linking them with native English writers from around the world.
