Gaza Youth Clubs Seek Better Life for Members
Poverty and unemployment has not stopped some of Gaza's youth from forming clubs to work for a better future.
“Faragh” (mearning leisure time) is a group of young Palestinian people, who gather regularly on a plot of land in front of al-Nasser al-Arabi Club in the al-Nasser neighborhood in Gaza. They discuss religion, politics, music and philosophy. Quite often, they are the only ones sitting in this area on a few modest chairs — a scene that signifies their modest lives. They like to call themselves the hard-working class.
On July 28, Al-Monitor attended one of their meetings, which are usually organized once a week during the daytime. However, during the month of Ramadan, the meetings were scheduled for a later hour. Thus, the group’s young women were unable to participate.
According to Ahmed Shehada, 25, their group seeks to have an intellectual influence on society. That is why they started a Facebook page to discuss the latest events, and most recently the crisis in Egypt.
Shehada added that what distinguishes their generation from previous ones is that they have access to a tremendous amount of knowledge from sources that were not available before, which would allow their generation to rule the Arab region in less than a decade.
