Our Project Manager, Macarena Cotelo, explains in the following article the historical links that bind us to the Holy Family School in Gaza, as well as our firm commitment to its reconstruction.

June 2000.

A parade of scouts and families was passing through the streets of Gaza City heading towards the Remal neighbourhood. The Consul General of Spain in Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem (the Bishop of the Catholics of the Holy Land) and myself accompanied hundreds of Gazans who were celebrating the blessing ceremony of the first stone of the new school of the Patriarchate in Gaza: the Holy Family School. While the project of a secular Palestinian state in which all minorities would have their place was still alive, Yasser Arafat himself had donated the land to build a school to the Catholic Church. At the same time, Spanish Development Cooperation understood the importance of investing in education in a place like Gaza, with a percentage of young people (currently 40% are under the age of 14), which is a huge asset for overcoming poverty. And he did so through the Fundación Promoción Social, which had already undertaken another important project in Palestine to build housing for young Christian families, which had been inaugurated just a few days earlier. That June day in Gaza was a day of celebration that we celebrated to the sound of the lambada danced by young Palestinian girls in flamenco dresses….

But in September 2000, the second Intifada began, and over the following years there were blockades of the Strip, armed conflicts, bombings… which forced the Holy Family School to temporarily suspend its academic activity on several occasions to become a refuge for hundreds of people, becoming a point of reference for the protection of the community. And our Foundation was always there, supporting the reconstruction of the damage that inevitably and consequently its facilities suffered, trying to improve them as much as possible.

In the current war, up to 2,500 people have been housed within its walls. Entire families populate the classrooms in the hope of seeing an end to this unprecedented conflict. In October last year, shortly after the war began, the Remal neighbourhood was shelled by the Israeli army, and the school was again badly damaged. But what no one expected was the level of destruction of the bombing last Sunday, 7 July, in which 16 people sheltering in the school lost their lives.

And one might ask: is it worth all the effort to build, even at the risk of seeing the fruit of so much effort destroyed? We answer emphatically: yes. Holy Family School has served the community for 24 years, so far, and has opened the door to hope for a better future through education for generations of Gazans. And it will continue to do so, because we will put it back on its feet to keep that hope alive.