What peace looks like on the Gaza Strip

Mohammed Eid, Palestine

Global Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Mohammed is from Gaza Strip, Palestine, where he has spent his life working. The Gaza Strip is one of the worst conflict zones in the world, yet it is a very beautiful and lovely country. He has studied applied linguistics at the University of Southampton in England. He then began working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in 2011, as a youth education specialist. He has worked on many programs and initiatives related to education development and youth empowerment.

During the rise of conflict in 2012, Mohammed worked in the refugee centers where they hosted refugees and provided them aid. In the following four years, his country was subject to two fierce wars, the crisis was unprecedented and the humanitarian situation deteriorated rapidly.

He applied for the Rotary Peace Fellowship, as he saw this as a chance to earn significant skills and knowledge, specifically within the Department of Global Studies. A knowledge that he hopes will help him coordinate with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other NGOs, in an attempt to reform the humanitarian relief program and present a new system that is capable of functioning during a large-scale crisis. Above all, he firmly believes that he will contribute to ending the violence and reaching a lasting solution that will save thousands of lives.