When we worked on the book, her mother spotted one of the children in our Gaza chapter and decided he is the one for her Nelly, her daughter’s future husband to be. The fact that this child lives in Gaza, miles away from her, is completely irrelevant. We all fell in love with him, and have since always called him “Nelly’s husband”.
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Nelson Mandela once said, “We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.”
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When I first met Karim, he told me, “As a child in Lebanon, an Israeli soldier made me stand facing a wall as he shot a bullet in the air, just like that, for nothing, and now here you are, in my home…”
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That very same evening, I resolved to show as many children as possible in our book, especially those who live in societies that are being dehumanized. We strongly oppose oppressive systems that rob people of their rights and strip away their equality. Especially children. In our book, you can catch a glimpse of what these children look like, in Beirut, Cairo, or Gaza. They have faces, and hopes, and dreams. They are not numbers. We owe them a life free of violence and fear. We owe it to Nelly, we owe it to “Nelly’s husband”, and we owe it also to Karim.
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Join us on this futuristic journey between children, smiles, and a shared future of us all. Equally.
