Thank you to everyone who believed in this project and got it funded, and welcome to the Heal Minds Gaza newsletter!

Some important updates: We've been working hard the past few weeks on how to implement the program. We're making some changes to the proposed activities for four reasons:

1. Centering the children's needs: We designed workshop activities based on expertise and past experience working with child trauma in Gaza, but these activities should be tailored to what the children ask for and require, as their experiences in detention are very unique. We also want to ensure that helping these children isn't a one-off initiative, but something more sustainable. 

2. The situation in Gaza: We've found that reaching all of the children and bringing them together in the same location and at the same time is very complicated due to the Israeli army’s ongoing occupation of the east of Gaza (in the so-called "yellow line"). Meanwhile, prices are going up for materials and transportation due to the siege, and we want to stretch your donations as far as possible. The things we would have to change for affordability and access would be unsuitable for the program.

3. Advocating for the wider cause: We feel that the program should address the bigger picture of the children's reality, and advocate for them and the hundreds of children still in occupation prisons. We want to work with the kids for a long time, expand the community of support for them, and highlight their issues globally. 

Changes we've made:

1. Longer-term art activities: Art production is the most important part of our approach, focused on fun, rebuilding values, and restoring imagination. We are designing activities that will take place over a few weeks at a time, centered on three elements: music, theater, and visual art (murals). These activities will also connect the kids with their wider communities, rather than as private workshops.

2. Testimony and recovery kits: Volunteers will meet individually with children and their families, encouraging children to express themselves about their situations and connect to people through their stories. They will also receive the recovery kits at this time.

3. Media: We have plans to share the children's testimonies through a film and a booklet to reach wider audiences, connecting their experiences to the broader issue of children in detention.

We look forward to updating you on all these activities very soon. Every dollar will be accounted for on Chuffed, here on our newsletter, and our public accounts.

Have any ideas? We are always reachable at healmindsgaza@protonmail.com and eager to make new collaborations!

–the Heal Minds Gaza team