At 18 years old, Malak is holding tightly to a childhood dream that many young people take for granted: to become a doctor. Today, her reality is far removed from the lecture halls of a university. She lives alongside her mother and her two brothers, Uday and Atef, inside a makeshift tent in Gaza. Their lives were upended, and their permanent family home was reduced to rubble by the ongoing crisis. Everyday life is a test of endurance, fraught with difficulty and profound uncertainty. Yet, despite the bleak circumstances that surround her on a daily basis, Malak remains fiercely determined to continue her education and carve out a better, more stable future for herself and her family.
The path to higher education in a conflict zone is rarely straightforward, but Malak’s academic resilience has been nothing short of extraordinary. Despite the severe displacement, psychological toll, and widespread disruption to academic schedules caused by the crisis, she managed to complete high school with an impressive score of 96%. Following this remarkable achievement, she made the decisive choice to study medicine—taking a vital, concrete step toward the career she has envisioned and worked toward for years.
Continuing those studies, however, has proven to be an uphill battle plagued by systemic obstacles. Many universities and educational facilities across Gaza have suffered extensive damage or total destruction during the conflict, forcing much of the educational landscape to shift online. For students like Malak, finding a reliable internet connection is a daily hurdle. Beyond connectivity issues, she lacks the essential hardware required to keep pace with her peers, needing a personal laptop just to attend online lectures, access course materials, and complete her rigorous academic assignments.
Compounding these technological barriers are financial realities that threaten to halt her academic journey altogether. University tuition fees present a major challenge, one that her family simply cannot afford to shoulder on their own without external assistance and community support.
Studying While Living with Pain
Malak’s daily struggle is not only academic and financial; she is also dealing with the heavy physical toll of a serious injury sustained during the conflict. She was shot, and the bullet remains dangerously lodged in her abdomen. Navigating her studies while dealing with chronic trauma is a testament to her profound willpower. She continues to attend necessary medical check-ups while waiting anxiously for a complex surgery that is currently unavailable to her under Gaza’s collapsing and overburdened healthcare system.
Despite living with constant pain and the looming threat of danger, Malak refuses to let her circumstances define her ambitions. When she is not trying to keep up with her demanding medical coursework, she remains a pillar of support for her family at home. She actively assists her mother with vital everyday tasks, including cooking, cleaning, and washing.
Her mother works tirelessly in a small local bakery, but the meager wages she earns are entirely insufficient to cover the family’s basic daily needs, let alone the specialized medical and educational costs required for Malak.
Life After Losing Their Home
Before the crisis shattered their lives, Malak and her family lived securely in a standard concrete house. That home is now gone, replaced by a worn and weathered tent that offers very little protection against the elements. As the seasons shift, the temporary shelter provides inadequate insulation from the biting cold of winter weather, the oppressive heat of summer, and the heavy, relentless downpours of rain.
The family’s daily existence is defined by scarcity. They are in urgent need of basic living items, including a structurally stronger tent, waterproof coverings to keep the rain out, mattresses, blankets, proper cooking equipment, cooking gas, a reliable water tank, sufficient food supplies, hygiene products, and a dependable source of light.
Malak herself requires basic personal provisions, such as adequate clothes and shoes, alongside the critical financial assistance needed to clear her university fees and secure a laptop to keep her medical education alive.
How Islamic Relief Supports Orphaned Children
In the midst of these overwhelming hardships, Malak’s family receives a vital lifeline of support from Islamic Relief, arriving precisely at a time when soaring costs, widespread displacement, and resource shortages have made meeting everyday survival needs nearly impossible.
Islamic Relief has maintained a continuous presence supporting orphaned children in Gaza since 1999 through its established Orphan Sponsorship Programme. The core mission of the programme is to provide ongoing support to children who have tragically lost one or both parents, offering families a regular monthly financial payment that helps restore a degree of stability.
This flexible support empowers families to direct the funds toward the needs they consider most urgent and pressing at any given moment, whether that encompasses securing nutritional food, accessing crucial healthcare, funding education, or covering other essential household expenses. Furthermore, Islamic Relief strives, wherever operational conditions permit, to include sponsored families in broader seasonal support initiatives. These include targeted Ramadan and Qurbani food distributions, Eid gifts for the children, and seasonal winter assistance packages designed to combat the harsh elements.
The scale of this humanitarian outreach has expanded significantly in response to the current crisis. Today, Islamic Relief is actively supporting nearly 25,200 orphaned children across Gaza, providing a crucial safety net for families who have lost their primary breadwinners and homes.
Despite this massive mobilization, the need on the ground remains staggeringly high. There are currently over 5,100 orphaned children on the organization’s waiting list, all hoping for the lifeline of sponsorship to secure their futures.
A Chance to Keep Moving Forward
For Malak, the pursuit of a university degree extends far beyond the personal pride of earning an academic qualification. She harbors a deep, empathetic hope that by ultimately becoming a doctor, she will be uniquely positioned to care for and heal other people in her community who are experiencing the exact same pain, trauma, and hardship that she has lived through herself.
Despite losing her childhood home, living with an untreated physical injury, facing daily dangers, and confronting seemingly insurmountable systemic barriers, Malak has resolutely refused to give up on that dream. Her story is a stark reminder of the resilience embedded within the youth of Gaza.
With continued humanitarian backing and targeted educational support, young people like Malak can keep learning, retain their sense of hope, and work steadily toward building a more secure and promising future.
Islamic Relief’s Orphan Sponsorship Programme helps provide regular support to orphaned children and their families in Gaza. Be a lifeline for Gaza’s orphans by donating today.