In Gaza today, displacement and uncertainty remain part of daily life. Although a ceasefire was declared in late 2025, humanitarian needs continue to grow. According to recent humanitarian reporting, the vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced at least once, and hundreds of thousands of people remain without adequate shelter, relying on damaged buildings or temporary sites with limited access to clean water, healthcare and sanitation. Young people, who make up nearly half of Gaza’s population, have seen their education disrupted, their routines shattered and their sense of stability deeply shaken.

For 23-year-old Leila, a young woman from Gaza, the war changed everything.

“Life turned into survival mode,” she says. “We lived under bombardment, never knowing if we would see the next day.”

Like many families, Leila and her relatives were displaced multiple times. Instead of thinking about studies, work or the future, she found herself focused on the most basic needs.

“I struggled to find the basic necessities we needed to survive like food, water and shelter,” she explains.

In a context where humanitarian response has largely focused on urgent lifesaving assistance, safe spaces for young people are limited. Through multipurpose youth hubs supported by UNFPA, funded by the Government of Japan, and implemented by local partners, young women and men are able to access psychosocial support, individual and group counselling, life skills training, sexual and reproductive health awareness sessions, comprehensive sexuality education activities, and youth-led community initiatives. The hubs also provide structured recreational activities and peer dialogue sessions that help restore routine and connection. These spaces operate as structured community platforms where youth can gather safely, rebuild confidence and reconnect with a sense of purpose amid prolonged crisis.

For Leila, the hub became something more than a programme activity. It became stability.

She had not always attended workshops or community activities regularly before the war. After months of displacement and fear, she felt overwhelmed and unsure of her role in a world that seemed to be collapsing around her. Yet stepping into the hub gave her something she had not felt in a long time: continuity.

“The hub was the support we needed,” she says. “Support that doesn’t just end tomorrow.”

Through group discussions, leadership sessions and peer support activities, Leila slowly began to see herself differently. The space allowed her to speak openly about what she had experienced and to listen to others who had endured similar loss and uncertainty.

“I no longer see myself as a ‘victim of circumstances,’” she says. “I see myself as an active woman with a voice, a role and a responsibility.”

In Gaza’s current reality, where many young people remain cut off from formal education and employment opportunities, structured youth spaces serve as one of the few consistent platforms for learning, protection and engagement. They help reduce isolation, strengthen coping mechanisms and mitigate risks facing adolescent girls and young women in overcrowded and unstable environments.

Leila says the change was gradual but real. Instead of feeling defined by war and displacement, she began to think again about contribution and leadership.

“Your support is not just aid. It is hope,” she says.

Despite everything she and her community have endured, Leila refuses to frame her future around survival alone.

“Despite everything we have been through, I firmly believe that Gaza deserves more than survival,” she says. “It deserves a future filled with dignity, opportunity, safety and life.”

In a place where recovery remains fragile and daily needs are still immense, youth hubs offer something that emergency assistance alone cannot provide: space to think, to connect and to imagine a future beyond crisis. For young women like Leila, that space is the beginning of reclaiming agency in a world that has repeatedly tried to take it away.