Palestinian Toy Libraries
We Too Want To play
The Story began here…
The First Toy Libraries In Palestine
Since I became a mother, I have suffered from postnatal depression that has affected my life personally, since then I have been enjoying the amazing facilities Australia provides to us parents. during my depression, I have visited the toy library and benefited from lovely talks and beautiful company, so much here to enjoy, where back home, there is hardly anywhere to play, and there is no safe place to even live.
I am doing this because we, outside Palestine, live such a privileged life, and we do not even need to think about all the hardship that mothers live over there.
Do they manage to walk their children out without losing one? do they sing them lullabies? or the pomps sounds are always stronger? can they afford to get them a toy to develop, manage, fix or even destroy? or they struggle daily to even feed their family?
This year has been a great success, I created work that I am so proud of, so I decided to dedicate my next few months to my homeland to make this project real.
A Time We Will Never Forget
Collaboration Is The Secret..
At my parent’s house, in the centre of Palestine, we all gathered from all around the country, thousands of toys, hundreds of boxes, tens of people to make our dream come true.
Women from all around the country sent their toys to collaborating organisations to work all together and deliver this beautiful achievement.
.We have partnered with the following organisations to collect used toys from all over Palestine:
Together for change- Sakhnin
Tishreen social engagement – Taybeh
Omnia Mothers association – Lod Ramlah
Women against Violence organization – Nazareth
Zaher Elloz group – Tera
We have partnered with the following organisations who are offering free space at their premises to host a library each:
Herak Youth Centre
Bozour Culture and Art Centre
Humanitarian Care Association – Shajaaeya
Gaza City Library
Tijwal Centre for Art and Culture
Al-Nasr Children Hospital
The list is growing as our team reaches out to more organisations every day.
We will start with a library in Gaza and go from there. The more money we raise, the more organisations will host a toy library.
Building Palestine's First Toy Libraries for Children
After over 70 years of occupation and war, Palestinian children have been stripped away from their simplest right, their right to play.
“We Too Want to Play” is our ambitious campaign to give every Palestinian child a safe space to play regardless of their social or economic circumstances.
We’re doing this by creating toy libraries across Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West.
Why Palestine Needs Toy Libraries
Research has shown that play promotes the development of the whole child socially, cognitively, physically, and emotionally. In fact, play is such a critical component to healthy child development that the National Association for the Education of Young Children named play as a central component in developmentally appropriate educational practices and the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights recognized play as a fundamental right of every child.
With such an integral component of children’s development becoming inaccessible to children of war and occupation, the effects on Palestinian children compound into their adulthood.
Gaza alone has 60,000 newborns every year with nowhere to play. Toy libraries provide local families with a range of quality fun and educational toys, games, puzzles and activities to play with or borrow for free.
The Campaign
At my parent’s house, in the centre of Palestine, we all gathered from all around the country, thousands of toys, hundreds of boxes, tens of people to make our dream come true.
Women from all around the country sent their toys to collaborating organisations to work all together and deliver this beautiful achievement.
After a long wait, because of a bombing attack on Gaza and a list of paperwork we needed to do, the delivery of the toys Gaza happened on the last week of Nov, below are photos of the preparation and final touches on the libraries and I will update it every time we have a new library ready.