Osama Wishah

Osama in 2018 at his school in Nuseirat, Gaza, when he received his copy of ‘Toothbrush’

In 2017, when I was a child at school in Gaza, my friends and I wrote and acted in a play called ‘21 hours’ for the Hands up project theatre competition. The play simulated the suffering of the young people of Gaza - particularly about the electricity cuts.

Making the play also helped me with my English. I was facing difficulty in mastering the language at that time, but thanks to Allah , this experience was the cornerstone of my educational career and understanding of this language.

I am now a student in the College of Medicine at Al Azhar University (just completed by third year exams) , and I’ve been volunteering since the war on Gaza began in the hospitals of the Strip to help the injured people in Gaza.

I was simulating a very difficult suffering with the play , and now I am living this situation for real with regret - alhmdulellah.

Osama now (left) performing surgery at Al Aqsa hopital, Deir Al Balah, Gaza.