Ajyal Association for Creativity and Development (Gaza)

Empowering children and young people across the Gaza Strip since 2003

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Background
Ajyal doesn’t just support Gaza’s children and young people — it believes in them. Founded in 2003, Ajyal Association for Creativity and Development is one of Gaza’s leading non-governmental organisations, working with children and young people who face multiple layers of marginalisation and turning that work into something bigger: capacity, confidence and community. Through innovative programmes and pioneering projects, Ajyal helps Gaza’s youth step into an active, positive role in Palestinian society, even — especially — in the hardest of circumstances.

Our partnership with Ajyal
We were introduced to Ajyal through our existing Gaza partners in early 2025, and it didn’t take long for a real partnership to take shape. We started by focusing on what mattered most in that moment: women’s empowerment programmes and emergency response, including food distribution and winterisation support through one of Gaza’s harshest winters on record.

Founded in 2003, Ajyal Association for Creativity and Development is one of Gaza’s leading non-governmental organisations, working with children and young people who face multiple layers of marginalisation and turning that work into something bigger.

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Together, we’ve already achieved a huge amount:

• Run two cohorts of Ajyal’s She is Capable programme, training groups of 20–25 women in small business entrepreneurship so they can set up their own micro-bakeries — creating income for their families and food for underserved displacement camps
• Provided hot meals to nearly 20,000 people facing intense food insecurity
• Given winter clothing packs to 1,100 people (most of them children) to help them cope with Gaza’s bitter winter, and distributed over 1,400 thick blankets to families most in need, living in tents
• Supported 1,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women with essential nutritional supplements and formula milk to help them feed their babies.

Gaza’s hidden threat: unexploded ordnance
Rubble isn’t just rubble in Gaza. It’s a minefield. Throughout 2026–27, we’re partnering with Ajyal on their Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) programme — vital, life-saving work in a Gaza Strip now littered with unexploded bombs and shells following the heavy bombardment since October 2023. UNMAS (the UN Mine Action Service) estimates that up to 10% of Israeli weapons fired into Gaza since 2023 have failed to detonate, leaving deadly hazards behind as families return to what’s left of their homes.

Over 12 months, this programme will reach 100,000 children with safety education delivered by trained community staff. It will also establish five community initiatives in displacement camps, each engaging around 100 participants, create five wall paintings to raise awareness in areas housing over 500,000 displaced people, and produce five social media videos on the dangers of explosive objects, expected to reach approximately 185,000 people.