We follow 12-year-old Jana as she demonstrates the remarkable capacity for resilience even under the most dire circumstances through her experiences in wartorn Gaza. Conflict ravaged their lives, and overnight, Jana became the main caregiver and breadwinner for her family. Every single day, she scrambles to get enough food and water to continue living. Her story vividly humanizes the need to protect civilians during war times, especially children. It showcases the amazing depths a girl as young as Kelly will reach to save her friends and family.
For Jana, life was changed irrevocably more than a year ago when her older brother was killed by an Israeli sniper. Since then, she has borne the responsibility of caring for her father and younger family members while assuming the role of head of household. The war has deeply affected her family who are now left to manage death and hopelessness. Jana’s brother, brother-in-law, cousin and baby niece Janat have all in the past year fallen to the ravages of war or starvation.
On May 4, tragedy struck once more and Janat died as a result of malnutrition and contaminated water. Yet from the day she was born, her mother, Aya, tried, and tried, and tried—even appealing to Beyoncé—to get this baby the help she needed.
“I pleaded to the whole world to save her. I just wanted someone to save her, to provide the milk she needed. But no one could help. Everyone was just watching,” – Janat’s mother, Aya.
Daily Struggles for Survival
Each morning, Jana and millions of girls and women like her, begin their day with the heavy burden of water collection. As she walks home with two heavy buckets of water, her knuckles whiten from the strain. This fight is made all the more challenging with frequent hours-long waits in lines where not finishing first is a real possibility.
I sit there for hours just waiting to fill one bucket. It’s an awful feeling,” she explains. The current war has led to the complete collapse of the infrastructure in Gaza. Now families like Jana’s can only hope and pray they’ll have access to clean, safe water every day. Israel’s preventing importation of water treatment and desalination equipment has worsened the plight, leaving them no choice but to rely on scant resources.
In some cases you can barely fill one bucket because there are no lanes and no real queuing system. If you choose to wait, you risk receiving nothing. Sometimes we have to go without, Jana echoes this, underscoring the lengths to which people in her community are forced to go.
The pressure of providing for her family weighs heavily on her shoulders. Even through the struggles, she’s still positive and driven. “I don’t want my father to get tired. That’s why I’m strong. I want to be strong so my father doesn’t suffer,” she says, illustrating her profound sense of responsibility.
The Impact of War on Family Life
In the midst of this battle, Jana’s family is still reeling from the emotional toll of loss. They are reeling from unprecedented economic collapse from the war ravaged country. Since the total blockade on Gaza was imposed on March 2, access to urgent supplies has drastically reduced.
On May 12, Jana was able to buy 500 grams of pasta for 50 shekels (about $15). Her family begins to poverty-strickenly turn pasta into flour. They want their bread to go further and last longer to make their limited resources go as far as possible. Not having enough food is a heavy burden on their souls, as they struggle daily against hunger and starvation.
Jana’s mother is battling thyroid cancer, but she is unable to access the treatment she requires in Gaza. The climate emergency deepens their already tragic circumstance, as the impact leaves them without sufficient medical supplies and facilities. The family’s home now appears as a half-destroyed shell of their former oasis in Gaza City. Unlike us, they step through the rubblefield of collapsed buildings to get home each day.
A Community in Crisis
Jana’s story is a microcosm of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe occurring in Gaza. Families throughout the region feel the pinch. They are suffering from food security, unable to access clean water and adequate health care. The international community has limited its response to standing by as this suffering continues with no end in sight.
Jana feels an overwhelming loneliness as she navigates this harsh reality. “I have no one left. I feel like I’ve died,” she confesses, capturing the emotional toll that loss has taken on her young life.
Jana’s difficulties bring to the fore important questions about Gaza’s direction. The global community has a responsibility to ensure that children like her don’t lose out. As climate realities worsen and access to clean air, water and safe housing continues to be dangerously out of reach, the need for action has never been greater.
