Stories of adversity, resilience and determination
Reality on the ground
The British Council SARD programme in Palestine supported six projects that engage youth, children and communities through English, storytelling and creative resilience.
These initiatives operate against the backdrop of the occupation, which shapes daily life through violence, barriers to movement, limited access to education and economic challenges.
‘Strangely enough, my best writing often comes when I am sad… I realised I could express my feelings more fully in a language that is not even my first.’
‘Today, I understand that war does not steal life from us – it teaches us how to live despite everything… I have become a woman who recognises the strength within her.’
Sara, from Gaza, writes about strength discovered through loss.
Sima, from the West Bank, writes about light found in winter, in sunlight, in a quiet cup of coffee.
Different stories.
Different tones.
Both shaped during SARD projects.
One shared truth:
Language is where Sara and Sima rebuild themselves. Sima dreams of the book she will one day write on her own. Sara has already transformed her story into strength.
Palestinians have long believed in storytelling – not simply as expression, but as craft, inheritance and responsibility. It is something learned, practised and protected. Storytelling is not only about reaching the world. It is also about inviting the world to come closer – to listen, to understand, to witness.
Through literature, language and empathy, stories teach justice in ways statistics cannot. They create emotional presence. They create emotional justice.
Through the British Council Palestine SARD programme (Stories of Adversity, Resilience and Determination), English becomes more than a subject. It becomes shelter, connection and possibility – a way for young people across Palestine to transform experience into voice, voice into presence, presence into truth, and truth into an act of survival.
Surviving with dignity
‘Young people learned not only how to tell stories, but how to survive with dignity, how to speak with clarity, and how to imagine a future beyond devastation...
These stories are more than words and videos. They are how our youth refuse to disappear'.
A creative model of empowerment
SARD transforms English from a subject of study into a tool for expression, collaboration and global engagement. Delivered through partnerships with Palestinian cultural organisations, educators and international collaborators, the programme embeds English within meaningful creative practice.
Participants wrote poetry and short fiction, produced podcasts, video stories, developed animation films, subtitled their own work, collaborated across borders and published for international audiences. Language developed through doing. Vocabulary grew through storytelling. Confidence strengthened through rehearsal, dialogue and shared creation.
SARD brought six creative English learning projects to life across Palestine (April 2025 – March 2026), reaching 298 participants –72% female, 44% under 18, 2% with a disability.
Partners in Resilience
‘For the first time, I felt that my words mattered to people outside my own community.’
Through partnerships with cultural organisations, educators and international collaborators, SARD creates pathways that extend beyond the project cycle. Young people connect with peers across geographies, publish for wider audiences and enter professional creative networks. English becomes a bridge – linking local experience to global conversation.
Animated Stories from Al-Jalazoun Refugee Camp. © British Council Project Team
Animated Stories from Al-Jalazoun Refugee Camp. © British Council Project Team
A stop-motion animation project helping young people in a refugee camp tell stories through film and English. Participants transformed memories of displacement into creative film with lasting impact.
Take a look behind the scenes of the project on the Animation Factory’s Instagram.
Children from Amplifying Palestinian Voices project. © Tamer Institute project team
Children from Amplifying Palestinian Voices project. © Tamer Institute project team
A literature and podcast project engaging children and young people in Gaza and the West Bank. Participants produced six English-language podcast episodes and scripts, using storytelling to strengthen language, wellbeing, and creative expression.
Listen to the six English-language podcast episodes created by participants and hear their stories in their own voices.
People in Gaza celebrating Ramadan. © photo by Doaa Albaz/Activestills
People in Gaza celebrating Ramadan. © photo by Doaa Albaz/Activestills
A digital storytelling programme supporting university students in Gaza to share their experiences in English. Through podcasts and blogs, participants strengthened language skills, confidence, and resilience.
Visit the Resilient Voices website to learn more.
Hakayana Writing Course project lead. © Aisja Hamed
Hakayana Writing Course project lead. © Aisja Hamed
An online writing course connecting Palestinian writers across Palestine and the diaspora. Participants developed their work in English while building confidence and literary community.
Read one of the stories published by a Hakayana participant in The Markaz Review.
Lines to the Future event. © British Council Project Team
Lines to the Future event. © British Council Project Team
A science-fiction storytelling project led by the University of Glasgow linking students in Gaza and Porto through writing and filmmaking in English. Participants reimagined their realities through creative collaboration, building connection, empathy, and hope.
Learn more about this project.
Children from 'Story on a Plate' project. © British Council Project Team
Children from 'Story on a Plate' project. © British Council Project Team
A creative English learning arts project combining storytelling and ceramics for refugee children. Participants turned everyday objects into personal stories of identity, memory, and belonging.
Follow Tashkeel’s journey with the children.
What remains
‘Do you know how to end a project? We don’t – and that’s fine with us.’
In SARD, projects do not end.
They echo.
They live in shared drafts.
In voice notes/ WhatsApp conversations sent at midnight.
In films screened to families.
In collaborations that continue long after the final session.
They live in language that now belongs to its speakers.
Ameera wrote:
When I return to the ruins of my home, I will embrace it and tell it of the days I spent as a refugee in the streets.
When I return to the ruins of my home, I will say to it, ‘The home's people have departed.’ And nothing remains but you, my home,
a witness to the anguish.
I will set you standing again,
I will make a small museum of their memories, and from your rubble, an everlasting memory.
In SARD, English becomes part of that rebuilding.
A language for memory.
A language for authorship.
A language that carries stories across borders.
This is not the end
Now we have just started
Storytelling is not a project that has ended
It’s a lifestyle of Palestinians’ daily live struggle.
Gaza
The Ministry of Health, cited by OCHA, reports at least 61,722 deaths and 154,525 injuries over the past two years. (UNRWA)
Children affected
UNICEF estimates 3,000–4,000 children in Gaza have lost one or more limbs, making it the region with the highest number of child amputees in the world.
Education disrupted:
Over 600,000 students in Gaza have missed formal schooling for a third consecutive year as hundreds of schools have been destroyed or deemed unsafe.
West Bank:
Approximately 33,000 Palestinians, including 14,000 children, remain displaced due to ongoing settlement expansion and annexation plans.
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