Jana nonetheless attracts, however her artwork has modified. Now she sketches tents, shattered properties, empty plates and warplanes. She holds a lifetime of trauma in her small fingers.
by Heba Alnabulsia
GAZA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) — My title is Heba Alnabulsia. I reside in al-Nuseirat refugee camp on the coronary heart of Gaza, a spot that has recognized each love and loss, laughter and worry. Today, I wish to share the story of my youngest sister, Jana, and the way her drawings have develop into our lifeline.
Jana started drawing at seven. Her first image — scribbled on a scrap of paper — was a easy tree, a baby’s imaginative and prescient of life, development, and peace. That was in 2020, throughout considered one of Gaza’s temporary respites from struggle.
Back then, her sketches burst with shade — brilliant, light, stuffed with desires and nature, very similar to our lives then. Even below blockade, we had our desires. I used to be learning enterprise administration at college and coaching at a financial institution. As for Jana, she would say: “My dream is to live my childhood in peace, safely with my family. I wish to complete my studies and become a doctor when I am older, and to enjoy my favorite hobby, which is drawing.”
Jana used to play with a toy stethoscope and faux to heal folks. She was at all times on the prime of her class. Every Thursday, she would lose herself for hours in her sketches.
The lady who likes to be taught is now 12, and she or he struggles to sleep. She wakes up crying from nightmares. The buzz of drones and the blast of missiles have changed her college bell. Since Oct. 7, 2023, we’ve got been displaced eight instances.
Jana nonetheless attracts, however her artwork has modified. Now she sketches tents, shattered properties, empty plates and warplanes. She holds a lifetime of trauma in her small fingers.
One drawing reveals a tent we lived in. We slept in colleges, in tents, on the road, surrounded by the little we may carry: paperwork, some garments, blankets, pots, buckets of water. In Jana’s drawing, a Palestinian flag flies above the tent; a small fireplace warms these inside. She titled it “Save Gaza.”
In January 2025, after a quick ceasefire, we returned to what remained of our residence. The partitions had been nonetheless standing, however the home windows and doorways had been gone. From our room, Jana may see the ruins of a bombed mosque simply meters away. On the opposite facet, our neighbors’ homes had been flattened, with some households nonetheless buried beneath the rubble.
Then got here the famine. Markets closed. We survived on canned meals. Jana started to dream of what we may not discover, so she drew them: oranges, bananas, grapes, peppers, carrots, popcorn, eggs and a slice of pizza.
I like her drawings very a lot, however I by no means imagined her artwork would someday assist us survive.
During the struggle, I related with associates overseas by social media, particularly those that stood with Palestine. About a yr in the past, a buddy in Seattle recommended turning Jana’s drawings into merchandise. I despatched photographs of her work, and the buddy helped flip them into stickers.
Others joined later. A buddy in Japan made postcards from Jana’s artwork, offered them at markets, and even introduced them to Singapore. Some designed artwork books, T-shirts and earrings that includes Jana’s photos. In Washington, her work was displayed in an exhibition.
The modest earnings from these gross sales, channeled by associates who ship what they will, has helped us purchase meals and some, restricted artwork provides. As costs have skyrocketed past most households’ attain in our war-torn Gaza, each dollar issues.
People who see her drawings name her a bit artist with a mighty soul. Her artwork has touched hearts the world over, a reminder that hope can nonetheless develop, even from ruins.
One of her most generally shared drawings got here throughout olive harvest season. In it, an olive tree stands agency, its roots spelling “Palestine” in Arabic. The leaves carry the colours of the Palestinian flag, swaying over light hills. The Al-Aqsa Mosque rises between the branches.
Jana additionally drew her want for 2025 — a keffiyeh, an olive tree, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a house cradled in a palm, the map of Palestine, a victory signal rising by sorrow.
Her newest piece depicts a woman crying silently, sporting a masks painted resembling the Palestinian flag. “This drawing holds the weight of everything I couldn’t say,” the 12-year-old lady instructed me. “I drew it with a heavy heart, thinking of every child who cries silently, and every lost dream, every mother who hides her pain, and every life shattered by war.”
Even drawing has develop into a battle. Art provides are scarce. She has only some pencils, small packing containers of acrylics, watercolors and coloured pencils, barely sufficient to maintain going.
She desires of extra colours, however like all the pieces else in Gaza, these are luxuries now. Once, Jana walked a good distance below the roar of warplanes, simply to seek out just a few sheets of paper.
For Jana, drawing has develop into each her voice and her refuge. It’s how she tells the world her fact, and the way she breathes when phrases aren’t sufficient. One day, she instructed me, “My drawings are pieces of me.”
Through these items, she retains a fragile hope alive, not just for herself and our household, however for all our individuals who aspire to a peaceable future and a greater life.
To me, Jana’s artwork can be a reminder for the world: Children in Gaza nonetheless dream, nonetheless create, and nonetheless lengthy for a future the place they will merely be youngsters.