My name is Zahia Arafa .

I am 20 years old. I am Palestinian and I was born in Gaza. When I say Gaza, this means determination, strength and patience. I will talk about myself briefly.

Since childhood, I had many dreams, including acting in plays to convey the Palestinian message and I succeeded. I participated in the hands up project. I participated in several plays, including The Screen, which won the admiration of many people.

We also participated in many meetings with people from different countries That was the first step in changing my personality. For example, I began to communicate effectively with others in  English language. I became more confident.

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My name is Santiago Alonso and I am from Argentina. When I was finishing secondary school, my English teacher, Teresa Continanza, invited me to participate in a Remote Theatre Competition organized by the Hands up Project. The play was called "Live Your Life" and it featured students from different countries such as Palestine, Spain, and Romania, as well as their teachers.

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In 2019, when he was 14, Salah Alaydi acted in the remarkable remote play - 'No more, no less'  Now as an 18 year old, he reflects on his experiences growing up with the Hands up project. His voice may have broken but his dreams have not.

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Hello, I’m Haya Orouq

I am 18 years old. I have participated in the hands up project since I was in primary school and I was a member of it for three years. I can say that these are the most beautiful three years in my life.

I have gained a lot of skills and achieved achievements because I was the leader of my team. We participated in writing stories, scenarios and attendance in zoom sessions. This gave me self-confidence and the ability to lead and cooperate in a team in addition to speaking English well and learning acting skills And I can't forget that I won twice consecutively in the acting competition, traveling to Jerusalem and acting in Alhkwati theater , meeting new people and making strong friendships In the end, there are no words that can describe how grateful I am for this experience and for this project, I am sure that this experience will open horizons for me in the future .

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Well, hello there! I am Diana El Hadidi.

I'm half Russian on my mother's side and half Palestinian from my father's side; therefore, I am a native Arabic-Russian speaker. I learned the English language and became fluent for two primary reasons.

Firstly, I am already proficient in both Arabic and Russian without any difficulty so I am fully aware of the myriad benefits that come with knowing multiple languages, including its positive impact on expanding one's cultural horizons, knowledge base, and quick thinking. This has fueled my desire to learn even more languages.

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Hello I am Zainab Zaher Hamad. I have participated in The Hands Up Project since I was in primary school, specifically with my teacher, Sahar Salha.

Where there are fun and varied activities, such as plays, the most notable of which is the play “Jabina,” where I was the main character, “Jebina,” and the play “He Returns to Haifa,” and many meetings. I received many awards, the most beautiful of which is the book Emma by Jane Austin which Mr Nick gave to me.

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When I was in primary school, I learned about this project, and we participated in many activities, such as we acted in many plays, such as “Jabaina,” and presented them to a group of foreigners.

We also participated in many meetings with people from different countries and got to know them through the Internet, and in the middle school I participated in the play “Live Your Life,”

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Hi, I am Ahed Zaher Alshawish. I worked with the Hands Up project since primary school, and among the various activities in which I participated were plays and online meetings, as well as work within schools in terms of cultural clubs for extracurricular activities.

I can say that working within the scope of these activities was quite a wonderful experience because from my point of view I acquired new skills and developed my old skills, including reading, writing, and speaking fluently, and of course these activities increased my confidence in speaking in English in meetings and councils in front of people and developed my vocabulary, so it was a special experience and I am very happy to join in participating with them.

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