Gaza, Shireen Al-Kurdi weaves joy for children in the Strip by making crochet dolls inside a tent

In a small corner of Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, Shireen Al-Kurdi sits inside her modest tent, surrounded by colorful threads and crochet needles, crafting from them a world of joy at a time when the simplest forms of childhood have all but disappeared. Displaced from Jabalia, Shireen has turned to handcrafting as a way to confront the harshness of reality, transforming her tent into a small workshop producing handmade dolls, in an effort to bring smiles to children’s faces amid the absence of toys due to war and ongoing restrictions on the Gaza Strip.

Shireen, 36, holds a degree in Arabic language and is a mother of five. Neither she nor her husband—also an Arabic language graduate—has ever had the opportunity to secure stable employment. With the outbreak of war, she lost her home in Jabalia, while her family’s house in Beit Hanoun was also destroyed. After multiple displacements, her journey ended in a tent in Al-Bureij camp, where she made the decision to start over from nothing.

She explains that the idea of making dolls came from her children, after noticing how happy they were with the simple toys she created by hand. With the entry of children’s toys into Gaza severely restricted, she saw an opportunity to meet a pressing need among children around her. “When I saw the joy on my children’s faces, I felt I could plant that same joy in the hearts of other children who have been deprived of their most basic rights,” she says.

Before the war, Shireen had a dedicated workspace in her home, complete with tools and materials. All of it was destroyed in the bombardment. Today, she is forced to purchase raw materials at significantly higher prices, creating a heavy financial burden and making it difficult to price her dolls in line with what families can afford. Nevertheless, she is committed to offering high-quality products at accessible prices. “Despite the rising costs, I try to keep the price of each doll low, because my goal is to make this small joy reachable for as many children as possible,” she explains.

Each doll takes approximately 14 hours of continuous work to complete, while Shireen’s working day can stretch to 18 hours under conditions that lack even the most basic requirements for creative work. With no electricity or adequate lighting inside the tent, she is forced to work at night using a simple flashlight, after spending her daytime hours caring for her children. “I work at night by flashlight. It’s exhausting, but when I see a child smile, all the fatigue disappears,” she says.

As the holiday season approaches—a time when markets were once filled with children’s toys—the reality today is starkly different. Markets are nearly empty, and joy is absent from children’s faces. Through her handmade crochet dolls, Shireen is trying, even in a small way, to fill that void, offering not just toys but a message of hope and humanity.
She concludes with a simple yet profound aspiration: “I dream of having a small workshop where I can expand my work and bring together women from Gaza to work with me, so we can provide dolls for every child and create a source of income for all of us.”

Despite all the challenges, Shireen remains determined to hold on to her dream—expanding her production and creating opportunities for creative women and girls in Gaza—making her story a powerful testament to resilience, creativity, and the enduring human spirit in the face of adversity.

By Salma Kaddoumi