On October 30, 2023, Shireen, a visually impaired 37 year old disability activist who is part of an activist group linking Gazans to the outside world, told The Centre for Lebanase Studies the story of her neighbour, a 30 year old woman who is also visually impaired. Shireen made sure to stress that her neighbour consents to disseminating her experience to the outside world.
Shireen’s neighbour was forced to evacuate her home due to the intense Israeli airstrikes on her neighbourhood and sought refuge in an UNRWA School. But life at the UNRWA school was so intolerable that the neighbour was compelled to leave the school and went back to live with Shireen and her family who hosted her, as Shireen’s home was not destroyed by the bombardment.
Shireen told The Centre for Lebanase Studies that her neighbour told her story because she wanted to expose the extremely difficult living conditions faced by people with disabilities who have been displaced to UNWA schools in the Gaza Strip. Additionally, she wanted to convey the extent of the fear and anxiety that were prevalent among the people displaced at the school in general, and how she felt about the predicament of yet another displacement in particular.
