Healing for Gaza-Stories from the frontlines
10 July 2026
Since May 2024, Amna has trained over 170 frontline workers in Gaza to provide trauma-informed mental health support to communities living through profound grief and
Amna uses storytelling to fight for a world where refugees’ rights and identities are respected, celebrated and supported. Our storytelling is reflective of our wider trauma-sensitive, values-based and identity-informed approach and we engage with different medias to change the narrative on refugees’ rights and wellbeing and advocate for a kinder, compassionate approach to those fleeing crisis.
First-person storytelling, particularly regarding forced displacement, is important for many reasons. Forcibly displaced communities are often talked ‘about’ and do not always have a chance to tell their story on their own terms. This is what Sada enabled our storytellers to do- share messages about their experiences that they wanted audiences to understand. By highlighting authentic voices and stories told on peoples own terms, we offered a counter-narrative to simplistic refugee stories in the mainstream.
While the physical journey undertaken by forcibly displaced communities has been extensively covered, what is less understood is its complex emotional impact. The Sada Project, a multi-media digital storytelling project – shed light on this through six personal stories of refugees from Afghanistan to Ukraine.
The stories are centres around six ‘stages’ of displacement:
The Sada Project was launched by Amna on World Refugee Day (20th June) 2022. Through Amna’s online networks and media coverage, the Sada storytellers accounts and experiences reached over four million people.
Amna utilised its Mailchimp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote the site to its followers and supporters. Amna’s Founder Zarlasht Halaimzai also took part in an online event with Deborah Frances-White, a British-Australian Comedian in order to further the reach of Sada. High profile figures also boosted Sada’s profile including but not limited to:
The Sada stories were further amplified through opinion articles by storytellers Maryam and Yasser in Haaretz and The Independent.
Since May 2024, Amna has trained over 170 frontline workers in Gaza to provide trauma-informed mental health support to communities living through profound grief and
-By Shiza Malik Growing up as a Palestinian refugee in a camp in Jordan, Mahmoud often faced racism. “It was part of bullying,” he said.
-By Shiza Malik Months after reaching Jordan, Fatoum, who escaped war in Sudan could not feel safe. Fatoum had crossed the border from Sudan to
When Andriy (17) and Olena (12) arrived in Serbia from Ukraine, they faced not only the trauma of displacement, but also the quiet, daily challenges
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