Enas Ghannam
Amplifying the voices of Palestinian youth, one story at a time!
Fundraising for Amos Trust
Story
For 25 years, Shireen Abu Akleh was the “voice of Palestine,” reporting from the front lines on the reality of life under occupation – the tragedies, the mundane hardships, the rare rays of sunshine. She told the truth by sharing our stories and thus served as the megaphone for so many.
On May 11, 2022, an Israeli sniper silenced Shireen. But the lesson Israel refuses to learn is that there are many other truthtellers training and ready to take her place. We Are Not Numbers exists, with your support, to nurture and develop that next generation of storytellers. With the help of an international network of mentors and coaches, we have trained more than 300 journalists, poets, and essayists, publishing more than 1,000 of their creations to date.
Help us show the world that we cannot be silenced! We Are Not Numbers’ graduates will keep on coming, filling Shireen’s shoes. Please donate today!
Help us
Israel killed Shireen Abu Akleh, “The Voice of Palestine.” But there are youths who hope to take her place. Support them!
As the next generation of truth-tellers, we feel a responsibility to honor the legacy of journalists like Shireen by using our creativity and this platform to share our personal stories, develop our skills, and connect with others around the world.
Furthermore, we have launched WANN Reports, to address the dearth of jobs for Palestinian youth in Gaza. This project provides our writers with an avenue to write news articles and obtain financial compensation for their work. WANN Reports connects Palestinian writers with news agencies sets them on the path of a journalistic career. The employment opportunities created by WANN Reports are particularly important because, due to the 17-year-long siege on Gaza, Palestine’s Gaza Strip has a 46% unemployment rate (Q1 2023).
Join us in continuing Shireen’s message and sharing the stories of Palestine with the world.
Your donations make it possible for us to keep sharing, caring, and creating. Please donate whatever you can today, and share this page with your network.
We are in Lebanon
The WANN project has a proven ability to amplify unheard voices, and so in 2023, we expanded the project into Lebanon, where numerous Palestinian refugees reside and possess unique and compelling stories to share. The first Cohort this year comprises 20 Palestinian writers from Gaza, 13 from Lebanon, and 5 from various locations in the Palestinian diaspora. We intend to train additional young Palestinians in a second Cohort in 2023, and we require your assistance to achieve this goal.
From its inception, WANN has relied on the support of individual donors like you not only to survive but to thrive.
Once a WANNer, always a WANNer
During the first half of last year, we effectively provided training to a total of 58 writers. Throughout the following months, an additional 35 writers hailing from Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and the diaspora enthusiastically joined our project. By December 2022, all of these new writers had successfully completed their training with us
However, at WANN, we believe in the saying, “Once a WANNer, always a WANNer.” That’s why even our “old” members continue to be involved. A subproject called WANN Photography allows them to share their stories through photographs that they take as part of a joint learning experience with young people from Norway. The photographers will also write 100-word reflections on their work. An exhibition in Norway and in Gaza will take place to present these photos, and a book will also be published featuring all of the photos and reflections written in Arabic, English, and Norwegian.
We haven’t asked for your financial support since 2020. Please step up and be our allies now!
We accomplish all of this almost entirely through crowdfunding, which is why we need you!
Palestinian youth in Gaza live in a region that has been under occupation for 75 years and under siege for 17 years. For their entire lives they have been subject to various assorted attacks and psychological and physiological traumas. And so they do not really know what it means to actually live. They spend their lives wondering what the point is, why they are living, and what little they can expect. Not being able to work, to travel, to study, or to have a dignified life… to them life is equal to death!
Similarly, because young Gazans have been confined to one small geographic area, their dreams and mindsets are typically limited; they see the world only through their own perspectives; they perceive that the traditions, values, principles, and even backgrounds of everyone else in the entire world are similar to their own. As an antidote to despair, it was destined for We Are Not Numbers to rise from the rubble and give hope to Palestinian youth and to enable them to show the world the reality of people living under occupation. We Are Not Numbers connects young writers with activists and writers who support the human rights of Palestinians so they do not feel alone anymore.We Are Not Numbers is also an antidote to parochialism. Our trainings broaden perspectives, help our writers make connections across borders, and expose them to the immense variety, and also the commonalities, of human existence around the globe.
What will your donation to We Are Not Numbers support?
- Six-month training program, twice a year. Our goal will carry us through one year, at the end of which we anticipate receiving additional funding. Every donation of any size counts.
- Transportation for young Palestinian writers to attend the training sessions.
- On-location community work.
- Video production and infographics aiming to raise awareness of the oppression of the Palestinian people and their demands for justice.
- More activities and initiatives to increase understanding of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination.
- We hope to inspire action and support to make the voices of Palestinians heard. Join us in our efforts to make a difference and bring attention to this important cause.
Who we are
We Are Not Numbers (WANN) is a youth-led, Palestinian non-profit project that aims to tell the stories behind the numbers in the news.
WANN was founded just after the Israeli military attack on Gaza in the summer of 2014, by an American journalist named Pam Bailey; the Gazan writer she mentored, Ahmed Alnaouq; and the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which today serves as the project’s official “home.” Ahmed’s oldest brother was killed by the Israeli military during Israel’s 51-day attack on Gaza., and Pam encouraged him to write his brother’s story as a sort of therapy, coaching him along the way. In the end, she realized the resulting essay needed to be shared with the world, it was published and the two decided this magical combination should be repeated with other youth. Euro-Med Monitor offered the initial support to get We Are Not Numbers off the ground and the rest, as they say, is history!
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