Agencies-Gaza post
Times nominates Palestinian girl for “Year Child Award”
Girl, Lujain Al-Qatawi, of Palestinian origin, has reached the final stage in the “Child of the Year” competition for the year 2022, organized by “Time” magazine with the “Nickelodeon” network of children’s channels.
The Time said in a report that Lujain, 13, of Palestinian origin, who lives in Maryland, decided to devote her free time during the closure phase that the United States knew to facing the Corona epidemic, to teach Palestinian refugee children in Jordan the English language.
She indicated that she was inspired by her mother, who studied English as a second language for two decades, and her family’s history, when her father immigrated to the United States from Jordan as a Palestinian refugee.
“We were sitting at home and I felt like I wanted to help people or make an impact, I was just thinking, what can I do to help people in general?” Lujain said in an interview with the magazine. What do I have?”.
Lujain realized that she had to help refugees learn the language, and decided to devote entire hours to indoctrination of Palestinian refugees in Jordan, where her parents lived before immigrating to the United States.
She designed her own curriculum and lesson plans, according to what she said, calling her “Sparkle,” noting that “Sparkle means knowledge and knowledge surpasses everything,” and began teaching Palestinian girls between the ages of 9 and 10.
Time said Lujain designed her lessons appropriately, incorporating videos and emojis that she knew children would enjoy.
Every Friday for six months, Loujain would finish her week at school and go to work preparing 30-minute English lessons for beginners. After that, she commuted to work every Saturday, spending her mornings on the Zoom app, broadcasting lessons 6,000 miles across the world to groups of school girls in Jordan.
“The goal of the project was not just to impart a new skill, but to empower girls to become more confident,” Lujain stressed, adding: “Whenever I felt like giving up, the small gains kept me going. It was really fun to see how happy they were and how it made a difference in their lives.” .
