A unique performance featuring children from all over the world including Gaza, the Czech Republic, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan and Thailand came to St Louise's Comprehensive College last week.
The children from Gaza and the Czech Republic had flown to Belfast for a week-long visit with The Hands Up Project, a charity that connects Palestinian children with classes all over the world.
For the first time they shared a stage to perform two plays, gave a dance recital and sang, communicating with one voice the importance of taking care of the environment.
The Hands Up Project specialises in ‘remote theatre’ – performing plays through Zoom – and encourages students to write and act in their own plays in English, connecting with students from 30 countries online.
Rahaf Alkafarna, 15, Malak Alkafarna, 14 and Yara Al Sabe, 13, from Gaza and Magdalena Zrostlikova, 12, and Julie Linderova, 13, from the Czech Republic had the chance to perform their play ‘Welcome to Earth’ to a real audience in a packed hall of 100 students, teachers and school governors.
The group received a rapturous reception, with a spontaneous standing ovation at the end.
WORKSHOP: The children participated in a rehearsal workshop at the school
For the girls from Gaza, living under a 15-year illegal Israeli blockade and subjected to repeated bombings, it was an emotional experience, a chance to be seen and heard by the outside world.
Speaking after the performance Rahaf Alkafarna said: "Today is the best day in my life because today I sent my message to the whole world. I am Palestinian. I can achieve my dream. Nobody can stop me. Nobody!"
Just getting the children and their teachers out of Gaza was itself a colossal undertaking, fraught with difficulties. At one stage, when it looked like the visas wouldn’t arrive in time, Hands Up founder Nick Bilbrough, believed the event would have to be postponed. At the last minute the visas were released just in time to allow the group to leave Gaza.
The children have enjoyed a warm welcome from their host families, the staff and pupils at St Louise’s, as well as several other schools including St Kevin’s, Coláiste Feirste, All Saints College and Glengormley High.
Over the last week they have taken part in art classes, enjoyed visits to Titanic Belfast, the beach, castles and marvelled at the rich, green countryside.
"Belfast is heaven on earth," Malak said, wide-eyed. "The people are so friendly here it feels as if you are at home and the nature here is amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this – trees, flowers, mountains. Things are bad in Gaza. Coming here was like going from a dark place into shining light. Every moment is a joy."
For Yara, her moment in the spotlight was bittersweet, saying: "I feel like I’m proud of myself and I wanted to cry. I cried because I wanted my family to see me."
Today, two million Gazans are trapped inside what some describe as ‘the world’s largest open prison’ with movement restricted to just the small strip of land 25 miles long. Infrastructure has been destroyed by decades of deprivation, with extreme shortages of electricity, water and medicine.
Most Gazans are refugees from other parts of Palestine, but they are cut off from these towns and villages by miles of seven-metre high walls, topped with sensors, remote control machine guns and barbed wire. For Rahaf, Yara and Malak, just being able to pass through the West Bank to reach Jordan was a chance to feel connected to their homeland.
Malak says their experience in Belfast has been like living "a whole new life in one week." She has resolved to return one day to study medicine so that she can become a surgeon "to help the people from my homeland".
Drama is not taught in Gazan schools so having an opportunity to perform is a rare experience. Gazan teacher Haneen Jadallah says it allows the children to feel confident and resilient, despite the hard circumstances they have endured. It is also a chance to contribute to a challenging world and serves as a way of self-identification and self-celebration.
‘It’s a sort of healing,’ she added.
The second play 'I Will Wait Until They Open the Gate' was written by refugee children in Gaza as part of The Hands Up project, and it was performed by a group of six refugee children, now students at St Louise’s, who had all suffered displacement and difficult childhoods.
PERFORMING: Both plays received a warm welcome
Shano Kanabi, 14, from Kurdistan, had a particularly harrowing experience as her family attempted to flee in 2015 but were detained in a Turkish refugee camp where they were locked in a single room for 24 hours a day. When asked what it meant to her to be able to perform in the school, she broke down, saying she could never have imagined being here.
"Since I was eight years old this was my dream. I want to thank St Louise’s. I am really happy to be in this school," she said.
"I am really proud to be in this school and I want to thank all the teachers. Education is so good here. If I was in my country now I would have stayed at my home and do work, I wouldn’t go to school."
The dramatic performances were illustrated by a powerful contemporary dance show from seven students of St Louise’s Dance Department which evoked the turmoil and catastrophic consequences of a changing climate, with a final message of hope and optimism in the choir’s moving rendition of Wonderful World.
It was an extraordinary show of unity by children from different parts of the globe who overcame walls, wars and language barriers to speak for the first time with one voice.
St Louise’s teacher Paul Woods, a member of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), which helped organise the visit, said: "We feel the voices of Palestinian people are not being heard.
"Their stories, their experiences are not being heard in the West. They’re being drowned out by other narratives."
The Hands Up Project is a charity which relies on donations for their important work. They still have some way to go to cover the costs of the trip. To support their work please visit their Justgiving page.
