Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – Every day at around 9am, after providing for her five children’s needs, Ola Saleh steps out of the tent sheltering her family in al-Amal camp.
Some five minutes later, the 39-year-old arrives at another tent in the camp and, for a few hours, she steps away from the demands of motherhood, displacement and grief.
This is a women-only safe space where daily sessions are held as part of a wider programme run by Collective Development Projects, an organisation offering psychological support, group discussions and practical guidance for coping with the pressures of war.
Here, Saleh has the chance to speak with others who understand her feelings without needing to explain them. Surrounded by psychologists and women carrying losses of their own, she finds something she has struggled to feel since Israel’s genocidal waragainst Palestinians in Gaza took so much from her.
Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – Every day at around 9am, after providing for her five children’s needs, Ola Saleh steps out of the tent sheltering her family in al-Amal camp.
Some five minutes later, the 39-year-old arrives at another tent in the camp and, for a few hours, she steps away from the demands of motherhood, displacement and grief.
This is a women-only safe space where daily sessions are held as part of a wider programme run by Collective Development Projects, an organisation offering psychological support, group discussions and practical guidance for coping with the pressures of war.
Here, Saleh has the chance to speak with others who understand her feelings without needing to explain them. Surrounded by psychologists and women carrying losses of their own, she finds something she has struggled to feel since Israel’s genocidal waragainst Palestinians in Gaza took so much from her.
An estimated 16,000 women across Gaza have lost husbands since the start of war in October 2023, according to UN Women – roughly one in seven families in Gaza is now headed by a woman.
For most, there has been little space or time to grieve. Living in tents without electricity or ventilation, they are occupied with securing food, water and the basics of daily survival.
Alaa Daoud, the field coordinator of the women’s safe space, says the initiative was designed to give women a safe environment to express themselves freely and receive psychological and practical support.
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Alaa Daoud says attendance has grown quickly since the sessions began [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]