Jamila's story

Jamila is a 17-year-old girl who lives in the Gaza Strip.

She lost both legs, when an unmanned Israeli drone dropped a missile on the roof of her house in east Gaza City. The rocket also killed her sister and a cousin whilst they were playing.

An ambulance came immediately and took Jamila to Hospital. She underwent several operations as doctors tried everything to save her legs, but unfortunately were not able to.

When our project team met Jamila, she was in urgent need of assistive devices to enable her to go to school without any help from her family or friends. Through our community-based rehabilitation programme in Gaza, we were able to provide Jamila with a wheelchair and a cushion and with the medication that she needed.

After receiving the items, Jamila said “I will rely on myself. No one will help me as my family and friends do now. And I will become a journalist,” The journey to her school, located 100 metres away from her house used to take her 20 minutes, but now it takes her only 5 minutes.

In addition to her ambition to become a journalist and write about the daily life of Palestinians living in Gaza, Jamila looks forward to one day becoming a mother and having a family. “For those kind hands who tried to help me, I tell them thank you very much, because they gave me hope to achieve my dream of being a journalist”