WRITING PROMPTS TO BENEFIT CHILDREN IN GAZA
A month has passed since this campaign began, and it is still the case, as UNICEF reports in Gaza, that “hundreds of thousands of children and families are caught in a catastrophic situation”. One of the hardest jobs we had to do when making these posts was updating the news every day as time passed and the numbers of children dead, missing, or injured in Gaza rose to horrific numbers: at least 4200 children have been killed and more than 7000 have been injured “due to unrelenting attacks”, while over 1300 others are missing. According to the World Health Organization, one child is killed in Gaza every 10 minutes. Although some of the child hostages have been returned, others have been killed in the conflict. UNICEF has called for “children held hostage in Gaza [to] be immediately reunited with their families and loved ones”.
We are so grateful to all the writers involved who took the time to offer their labour for free in the hope of encouraging us all to intervene and take action by donating for a humanitarian cause. Heartfelt thanks to:
- Menna Elfyn for her poem ‘Eto Fyth yn Gaza’, ‘Gauze in Gaza’
- Day 1: Abeer Ameer, ‘For an Olive Tree’
- Day 2: Sara Abou Rashed, ‘A Map of You’
- Day 3: Polly Atkin, ‘Garden of the bodymind’
- Day 4: Kathryn Bevis, ‘Writing about Colour’
- Day 5: Helen Bowell, ‘Connections’
- Day 6: Zoë Brigley, ‘Writing the Ethical Relationship’
- Day 7: Jude Brigley, ‘Re-winding the Past’
- Day 8: Zakia Carpenter-Hall, ‘The Kind of World You Want to Live In’
- Day 9: Rachael Clyne, ‘Mystery Poems’
- Day 10: Jane Burn, ‘Singing Yourself to Sleep’
- Day 11: Siân Melangell Dafydd, ‘Translating the Dawn Chorus or the Supermarket Car Park’
- Day 12: Jeremy Dixon, ‘Joyous Translation’
- Day 13: Cath Drake, ‘The Anti-consumerism Poem’
- Day 14: Mari Ellis Dunning, ‘Responding to Adversity’
- Day 15: Rhian Edwards, ‘Character Portraits’
- Day 16: Glyn F. Edwards, ‘Repetition, or Repetition’ with a wonderful poem by Zaffar Kunial
- Day 17: Menna Elfyn, ‘Found Poetry’
- Day 18: Robert Hamberger, ‘Anticipation’
- Day 19: Angela Graham, ‘Building’
- Day 20: Philip Gross, ‘Macaronic Verse’
- Day 21: Kristian Evans, ‘The Daimon’
- Day 22: Thaer Husien, ‘Thrown Off Course’
- Day 23: So Mayer, ‘Disturbing Words’
- Day 24: Nia Morais, ‘Five Prompts’
- Day 25: Vicky Morris, ‘Writing about what you know … or don’t!’ with a wonderful poem by Carole Bromley
- Day 26: Iain Morrison, ‘A Letter Prompt’
- Day 27: Katrina Naomi, ‘Tricking Yourself Into Writing’
- Day 28: Eric Ngalle Charles, ‘Fatima’s Story’
- Day 29: Yvonne Reddick, ‘Self-heal and Bee Balm: Poems about Plants’
- Day 30: Matthew M.C. Smith, ‘The “make it new” poetry prompt’
- Day 31: Emily Trahair, ‘Meeting Your Neigbourhood’
- Day 32: Leah Umansky, ‘Survival’
- Day 33: Rhys Owain Williams, ‘Making Use of the Useless’
We are also publishing two extra prompts for the campaign in our December 2023 issue 3 by Robert Walton and Lani O’Hanlon.
Special thanks are due to those who helped organize and support this month of prompts, most indispensible being Emily Trahair (who also provided a prompt), Taz Rahman, and Frances Turpin. These prompts have been given freely by the writers, in the hope that those who find them useful will in return make a donation to one of the charities attempting to work in Gaza during this time of unprecedented crisis.
There is still time to donate. Despite a temporary pause in the conflict, the attacks on Gaza have been renewed with civilians, especially children becoming collateral damage. UNICEF spokesman James Elder explains: “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” The United Nations is often characterized as a cautious organisation, so when the UN talks of a potential genocide happening in front of us, it needs to be taken seriously. We are thankful to all those who made donations and to all the writers involved. We cannot stop however, but must continue, because for children and their families in Gaza, the suffering is ongoing.
Zoë Brigley & Kristian Evans
Please consider donating to a charity providing medical aid in Gaza. We recommend UNICEF’s Appeal for Children in Gaza, but other charities include:
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
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