Hadil's Dream

My name is Hadil Louz, a 25-year-old dreamer from Jabalia, Palestine’s biggest refugee camp in Gaza’s enclave.

I am launching this campaign because I am in a critical need for your support and help. Read my story and support by whatever you can, even if only by sharing.

I have been trying to find a fully-funded scholarship to pursue my higher education in International Human Rights Law for 5 years, and I finally got one! It is Gaza Oxford Brookes Scholarship, which is offered annually to one student, and this year it was me!

The scholarship covers the tuition fees, accommodation and living expenses during my one-year study in the UK. But it doesn't cover my visa fees, health insurance, travel expenses from Gaza to the UK, which I cannot cover due to the widespread unemployment among youth and my family’s financial hardship. It’s approximately $2500. This is why I am trying to raise funds to help me fulfill my dream.  

As third-generation refugee woman born and raised in Jabalia Refugee Camp, I developed a first-hand understanding of the physical and psychological trauma that refugees are forced to endure. Gaza’s population have been victims of a longstanding cycle of violence since 1948 Nakba, the destruction of historic Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of its inhabitants. In the past decade, the suffocating blockade and the waves of mass destruction and killing which Israel launched against Gaza civilians as a measure of collective punishment left us in a desperate situation, or how in the words of Save the Children, an unliveable reality. However, as Gaza’s Great Return March has shown in action, Palestinians are not passively receiving oppression, but they actively resist oppression with creative and diverse means of resistance. Mine is education.

While I was working on Save Early Education Development research aims at finding a solution for the children who don't have an adequate education because they live in the urban slums and conflict zones, as a part of my participation in Hult Prize Challange Competition,  Gaza, 2016.

My dream is to empower myself through education to empower Palestinians and oppressed communities that are torn by war and conflicts of ethnoreligious, political and economic nature worldwide. This is where my interest in International Human Rights Law comes from.

This study will help develop my existing skills which I gained during my previous voluntary work experiences in human rights campaigning and supporting local vulnerable people in Gaza, especially children and teens who were deeply affected in the wake of 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza.

I believe that we as youth represent the power of change. We are the future leaders in our societies. Making a difference is difficult without self-development. This is why I’m launching this campaign, as I don’t want my financial hardship to stand in the way of accomplishing such a simple dream that is made difficult due to an unjust situation.

Help me to make my dream of studying at the Oxford Brookes University in the Law department come true. Any amount you contribute, no matter how small, will be very appreciated. A share to this link will be great, even a prayer for me to cross Rafah Border at minimal hardship will be much appreciated!

The scholarship offer letter, 8th June 2018.