Name: Hanan Ahmad Abdulrabah Al-Sarrawi
Position: Member of the Administrative Committee of the Kindergarten, Private Schools and Day-Care Workers’ Union – Bethlehem Branch
Occupation: Director of Rowad Al-Mustaqbal Kindergarten and Teacher
Location: Doha, Bethlehem

I am Mrs. Hanan Ahmad Abdulrabah Al-Sarrawi, a member of the Administrative Committee of the Bethlehem branch of the Kindergarten, Private Schools and Day-Care Workers Teachers’ Union, the director of Rowad Al-Mustaqbal Kindergarten, and a teacher in the city of Doha.

From my position in the educational field, I live every day with the details of the reality imposed by the recent events related to the war in the region. After the latest military escalation, life is no longer the same, and education in kindergartens no longer continues in the normal way that children at this sensitive age need.

The first impact was clearly on the stability of the educational process. Repeated closures and sudden interruptions caused children to be separated from their educational environment. This separation cannot only be measured by the number of missed school days, but by its deep impact on the child, who needs a stable routine and a sense of safety in order to learn and interact.

Our kindergarten is a place that we always tried to make safe, but this is no longer the possible. The general atmosphere of tension, the sudden sounds of rockets, and the raids carried out by the Israeli occupation army at any time have created fear and panic among the children, and this feeling has spread among all of them in one way or another. We started noticing anxiety in their behavior, fear in their reactions, and even in the simplest daily details.

All of this cannot be separated from the difficult economic reality. Families were directly affected, and this reflected on parents’ ability to pay school fees, which in turn affected the ability of kindergartens to continue at the same level. Today, kindergartens are trying to balance between continuing their work and providing the minimum level of stability for children despite all the challenges.

As teachers and school directors, our role is no longer limited to providing education. It now includes psychological support and trying to create a safe environment in unsafe conditions. We try to comfort the children and give them reassurance, even though we ourselves live with the same fear and instability.

This reality cannot be fully described in words, but it is lived every day in all its details, from the moment the child leaves home until it arrives at the kindergarten, and then returns home again. Every day carries unexpected possibilities, and this alone creates a heavy burden on the child, the teacher, and the educational institution.

What we are living today is a difficult stage that has left a clear impact on kindergarten education and on the children themselves, who remain the most affected by everything happening around them.

Despite all of this, the children of Palestine still hold on to their right to education and life. We continue to protect their small dreams and stand beside them, because the hope we see in them is greater than all the fear.