“Zeinat Kol Alharat”, youth’s creativity at its best   

Gaza- Yalla Change
The Gaza Strip suffers from shortage of basic services especially local administrations services like sewage and neighborhood’s maintenance and cleaning, most notably in marginalized areas. This promoted the initiative implemented by young people participating in the Yalla Change project as part of a number of initiatives launched by the project’s members on different areas and fields in the Gaza Strip early 2019.
“Zeinat Kol Alharat” initiative is a campaign to clean, plant and light up Al-Kalaboush neighborhood in Nusseirat area, in addition to coloring and decorating its walls in cooperation with the residents of the neighborhood to create a clean environment and a more beautiful surrounding for the targeted neighborhood. It was implemented in the last week of January 2019 by members of the Yalla Change project. The initiative received a lot of appeal from the residents of the targeted neighborhood and the cooperation of the municipality of Nusseirat, which provided a range of assistance to ensure the success of the initiative.
Saif Abu Safer, the initiative’s team leader said that the main goal of the initiative is to improve the environment surrounding the targeted neighborhood as well as enhancing the culture of environmental preservation. He noted that the work took place over two consecutive days. Day one was cleaning the streets and painting the walls while day two continued the cleaning process as well as decoration, planting trees in the area and adding lighting lamps. The neighborhoods residents’ pitched in and helped implement the initiative as well.
Asmaa Al-Sayed, a member of the initiative’s team noted that the initiative adds a type of beautification to marginalized neighborhoods that lack road maintenance as Palestinian camps lacks aesthetic features and that’s why we choose this initiative.
Mona Al-Rasi, another participant of the initiative said that Gaza is still very much alive with its citizens and that a small success like this one would go a long way.
Um Mohammed Hamdan from the neighborhood was very pleased with the initiative that really helped improve the neighborhood’s surrounding environment and also strengthen the bonds between the residents. She mentioned its great impact on the Palestinian community as a whole and the camp’s residents in specific. Residents and guests of the area would be very pleased.
Mr. Ra’fat Al-Qatrawi, a resident of the neighborhood, added that this initiative gave the residents a glimmer of hope that life is still beautiful despite the poor living conditions they are living in the Gaza Strip.

He noted that the coloring and decoration left a positive impact on the children who helped clean the neighborhood and plant and water the trees. He felt it was a therapeutic experience we could all benefit from in Gaza. The initiative helped us change ourselves.
The neighborhood’s residents interacted with the idea in great detail. Young people and elderly alike began to paint, decorate, draw and work handicrafts with the simplest materials available, showing the brotherly ties and cooperation that have united the neighborhood for decades. They believed that their neighborhood is beautiful and will even be more beautiful with decoration and colors.
The initiative is one of nine initiative launched by Yalla Change participants covering different areas and fields in the Gaza Strip to tackle some of the needs and community issues as part of enhancing the culture of volunteer work and restoring trust in youth’s role in investing in local means to enact change.