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Masa Draws the Sea Again

Better Learning Programme, implemented by NRC and funded by ECW, delivers mental health and psychosocial support alongside education for displaced children in Gaza

By Education Cannot Wait

August 14^th, 2025

Adapted story from the field. Special contribution by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

In a small tent in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, 12-year-old Masa carefully places her coloured pencil on the page, tracing the curve of a wave. Her brown hair is pulled back in a ponytail, secured with two plastic barrettes. The sea she draws is calm and glimmering.

In her real world, just beyond the canvas, nothing is calm.

But in this small act of creativity – in the rhythm of drawing and the comfort of her new learning space – Masa is learning to breathe again.

“I used to live a beautiful and peaceful life in the Al-Nasr area in Gaza City. My school was my wonderful world where I gathered with friends. But after the war started, we were forced to flee multiple times until we ended up in a tent at the Saned site in Deir al-Balah. My life became nothing but emptiness, suffering and extreme loneliness.”

In her young life, Masa has already endured more pain, loss and violence than any child should. After attacks and displacement orders forced her to flee her home – and the school and friendships that once gave her joy – she faced a daily battle with fear and feelings of despair.

When a temporary learning space was established at the Saned site, Masa regained a small semblance of the childhood she once knew. She now attends learning sessions in a safe environment where she’s rebuilding her lost skills in Arabic and mathematics, making new friends, learning calming and coping techniques, and rediscovering joy through play and art.

This initiative is funded by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises in the United Nations, and is part of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) flagship Better Learning Programme (BLP). For children like Masa, it’s a first step towards recovery and hope.

Masa works on a drawing during a session of the Better Learning Programme in Gaza. © NRC

Where learning establishes the foundation for healing

At 12, Masa is the youngest of her siblings. With a significant age gap between them, school had always been the place she played and connected with children her age. When her family fled Al-Nasr, she not only left behind her home, but her school, friends and beloved teachers.

Masa spent long days in the family’s small tent in Saned site, her anxiety growing in the silence.

“I had no friends. I always felt isolated and distressed, with no one to talk to.”

Even stepping outside of the tent was dangerous. Her mother and older sisters urged her to stay inside, afraid for her safety.

Masa’s nights became a cycle of fear and nightmares, always haunted by the thought of losing those she loved. These weren’t imagined fears. Her beloved aunt was killed in an airstrike on a school where she was sheltering, and her cousin's leg was amputated after sustaining injuries in the same attack.

“Since the beginning of the war, I have lived in constant fear of death and deep anxiety about losing my family. I woke up terrified many times at night, sometimes waking my brother to calm me. I felt that death was getting closer to us and that the war and bombings were stealing the people we love.”

Masa prayed that her family be protected.

Masa draws a picture in the learning tent during a session of the Better Learning Programme in Gaza. © NRC

“At school [before], I’d felt strong because of my teachers and classmates. But now, I am on the streets with nothing to do and no purpose.”

Everything changed the day a group of teachers visited her family’s tent. They spoke to her mother about a new learning tent at the site and encouraged Masa to join.

“Since joining the sessions at the educational tent, I have felt some hope that life could return to us. I made friends and established a routine in my life. I also started drawing beautiful pictures again, just like before.”

Today, Masa regularly attends psychosocial and learning sessions through the BLP. The initiative weaves together basic education – including Arabic and mathematics – with therapeutic tools like breathing techniques, storytelling and guided drawing to help children process trauma and stress.

“I learned many things that helped me to calm and relax. I learned deep breathing exercises, the safe place technique and relaxation methods. I practiced these techniques regularly, especially picturing my safe place."

Through these sessions, Masa was introduced to Miskit the brave stoat, the main character of a storybook produced by NRC to help displaced children navigate complex emotions.

“I learned from Miskit that the life of displacement is difficult, but we must be strong, never lose hope, and discover our inner strength and unique merits that help us persevere and not fall into despair. It is normal to feel fear and anxiety because war is terrifying, but I learned how to take care of and protect myself.”

The BLP brings together teachers, caregivers and counselors to create safe, supporting learning environments that help children to cope, restore a sense of normalcy and nurture hope. Now, when Masa feels afraid, she remembers her teacher’s words – that negative thoughts make us feel hopeless. She then takes out her drawing supplies or talks to friends to cope.

Masa’s drawing of Miskit the Brave Stoat. © NRC

When schools became shelters

Since October 2023, when the escalation in hostilities began, an estimated 660,000 children in Gaza have been cut off from formal education, with schools repurposed as shelters for displaced Palestinians. Ninety-seven percent of schools have been damaged or destroyed.

Even before that time, more than 800,000 children – amounting to three-quarters of Gaza’s child population – were already in urgent need of mental health and psychosocial support, as a result of repeated escalations and the ongoing siege.

In response, ECW announced a US$2 million First Emergency Response grant in Gaza and the West Bank in August 2024. The grant is delivered by NRC through the BLP. Through the programme, displaced school-aged girls and boys receive psychosocial support and access to recreational activities designed to reduce distress and promote well-being.

One core aim of the initiative in Gaza is to teach children self-regulation, calming and coping skills. Educators and community members are also equipped with the tools to create safe learning environments and support children’s emotional recovery – part of ECW’s commitment to holistic quality education.

Children engage in a learning activity at a temporary educational space in Gaza, part of NRC's Better Learning Programme aimed at providing psychosocial support and recreational activities to foster resilience and normalcy. © NRC/Amjad Al Fayoumi

ECW has supported education in the State of Palestine since 2019 – with investments totalling US$37.2 million and having reached over 970,000 children and adolescents to date, 51% of them girls. Now, with devastation at historic levels, children like Masa face an uncertain future. ECW and partners continue to call for an unconditional ceasefire, unimpeded access for humanitarian aid and full adherence to international humanitarian law by all parties of the conflict.

Meanwhile, by investing in a minimum continuation of learning, and mental health and psychosocial support for the children of Gaza, ECW is committed to doing all it possibly can to mitigate their suffering and bring hope to those who most need it.

“When children experience significant and stressful events such as displacement, they lose contact with their schools and teachers, and are unable to engage with school life – especially as schools have now become shelters. As a result, children lose confidence in themselves and in their identity.” ~Maysa Asfour, Education Officer at NRC in the State of Palestine

As part of the latest phase of the response, the ongoing BLP activities are supporting children to regain that confidence, while forming friendships and safe social relationships. By reintroducing a sense of safety, friendship and routine, the programme restores not just education, but a child’s sense of being.

Education officer Maysa Asfour works with children at a temporary educational space in Gaza, part of NRC's Better Learning Programme aimed at providing psychosocial support and activities to foster resilience and normalcy. © NRC/Amjad Al Fayoumi

Rediscovering hope, one lesson at a time

Masa now begins each day by helping her mother fill water buckets. Then she walks to the learning tent, where she reads, draws and relearns maths and Arabic – the building blocks to education that two years of war had threatened to erase. She also draws the sea almost every day.

Masa dreams of becoming a doctor.

“I want to help children. It is my right, like all children in the world, to dream, grow and build my future.”

Yet, for children like her, that future hangs in the balance. Continued investment in education and mental health support is not a luxury – it is a necessity. BLP is just one step in a much longer journey towards recovery. But it is a powerful one.

“This grant from ECW allows us to begin restoring mental health and learning services,” says Jan Egeland, Secretary General of NRC. “But it is only a drop in an ocean of need. These children must not be forgotten.”

In a corner of a tent in Deir al-Balah, Masa picks up her pencil again. The waves on the page are growing stronger, more vibrant. She still carries the weight of grief, but her drawings whisper something else: resilience.

“I love drawing the sea because it reminds me that life is still possible and beautiful.”

Masa is not giving up. We must not give up on her. Every child has the right to education.

Every child has the right to grow up.

Children engaging in a learning activity at a temporary educational space in Gaza, part of NRC's Better Learning Programme aimed at providing psychosocial support and recreational activities to foster resilience and normalcy. © NRC/Amjad Al Fayoumi

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