#07 UNLEARN.
We have learned first-hand something profound. While we sharpen our eyes to see oppression in political practices, discourse, and administrative structures, the cruelest chains are those we inherited unconsciously—the organizational cultures, terminologies, and automatic responses bred into our bones.
Entire social classes of our people have become prisoners of the NGO paradigm. Since the 1990s, foreign funding has woven an ideological web across Palestine, replacing the grassroots spirit of the First Intifada with professionalism.
We need to resist the automation of thought, to push back against those "professional" shortcuts that steal our capacity to question, to invent our own methods, our own pace, our own language. Even when we master anti-colonial theory, even when we recite the “textbook” of liberation, making the leap remains treacherous.
True community work becomes liberatory not merely through opposing dominant power, but through daring to attempt the unattempted, to articulate what has not yet been said. We must unlearn and deconstruct the ways we were "taught" to work. We must create space—not for teaching and absorbing—but for exploration and experimentation.
This month, Rawa welcomed four young women, aged 18 to 23, into paid internships. We aim to create an enabling environment for them to learn about and from Rawa, to work jointly with our team. Even without previous experience, we invite them to grasp our vision and values and forge their own paths in community work.
For understandable reasons, the genocide traps us in the immediate moment. However, we urge you, friends—while never abandoning today's urgent support for Gaza—to invest in the future of the struggle for liberation, justice, and peace, in your own organizations, circles, and in Palestine. █
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Inspire
Named after a revered woman figure of charity in Islamic tradition, the Zeynab Project connects compassionate sponsors worldwide with orphaned children in need. Through monthly sponsorship programs, the organization ensures that children receive essential support, including food, water, shelter, clothing, education, and medical care. It seeks dedicated long-term sponsors who can provide consistent monthly support, creating stability and security that allow these children to focus on growth and education rather than survival. The initiative has established a trusted framework for delivering aid directly to caregivers—often widowed mothers—and ensures transparency and effective distribution of resources, creating a lasting positive impact in children's lives.
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