On September 12, the Crosby Academic Primary school (CAPS) hosted a Palestine Day Event organised by the Social Intifada group. The event was aimed at educating and conscientising the learners and their parents about Palestine and the current genocide happening in Gaza.
By Fatima Moosa
Speakers on the day included Palestinian digital creator from Gaza, Ahmed Ghunaim, Social Intifada co-founder Khalid Vawda, Palestine Information Network founder Moulana Ebrahim Moosa, author and cartoonist Nathi Ngubane, and Salaam Foundation’s director Azhar Vadi.
CAPS is a huge supporter of Salaam Foundation and helped to previously raise funds for the LemonAid campaign in 2023. During his address of the school, Azhar Vadi started off by reporting back on some of the humanitarian causes that were supported in Gaza since then. The money raised had gone towards purchasing fuel (diesel) for ambulances, medical aids, hot meals and fresh water supply.
“You might be wondering why we bought fuel when people’s houses were being bombed,” Vadi asked the students. He explained to them that the fuel was used in the ambulances which were used to transport injured people to hospital.
“Then we found a hospital. You might have seen this hospital on the news – the biggest hospital in the Gaza Strip. It’s called the Shifa Hospital […] There were many people who needed medical aid… some of the money that you sent went to that cause as well.”
He added, “In January, February of this year, we realised that food was becoming a big problem because all the bakeries were being bombed and the farms were being destroyed and the animals were being killed. So we decided to set up what we now call the Gaza Kitchen.”
READ MORE: Salaam Foundation’s #GazaKitchen: “We Live, We Resist”
Vadi explained to the children that the kitchen was initially set up inside of school buildings and other buildings but it kept having to be moved because the buildings were being bombed by the Zionist Israeli state.
“So we decided to move the kitchen outside,” he told the learners. “Every single day, huge pots are being set up in the streets between the buildings, hidden away. These pots are set up in the street and about 3500 meals are prepared daily.”
Emphasising the importance of the kitchen, Vadi said that if the kitchen doesn’t operate or if the people are unable to get to the kitchen, they won’t be able to get any food for the day.
“If you eat, you exist. And if you exist, you resist.”
Vadi told the students they should add a new slogan to the ones they had been chanting that day. “To exist is to resist. If you fight back against this oppression, you will continue to resist. And if you want to exist, you have to resist. We cannot allow oppression and genocide and murder and all these horrendous, horrific deeds to continue.”
The day was an important one for the learners to be educated and to understand what the situation is like in Gaza, especially for children their age who are going through many difficulties in Palestine.
More than that, all of the speakers including Vadi emphasised to the students the importance of standing up for what’s right, being informed and using the correct information to raise their voices and speak up about injustice.
