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It’s a haunting statistic, because it reveals the contradiction at the heart of childhood in crisis. Children know what they need. They understand instinctively that play is medicine. And yet, in displacement camps across Gaza, 4 out of 10 children have never participated in organized sports. Playgrounds don’t exist. Footballs are scarce. Trained facilitators are absent.
But this is not a story of only what is missing. It is a story of what is possible when organizations commit to bringing play back.
Displacement changes childhood in ways that adults rarely witness. For many children in Gaza, play has been replaced by survival. Their days are consumed by collecting water, gathering firewood, preparing food, waiting in food distribution lines. The minutes left over are filled with swimming in the sea, building things from sand, or scrolling through mobile phones—not out of desire, but out of boredom and the absence of alternatives.
Parents noticed the change. They reported increased aggression in their children, anxiety and fear, emotional withdrawal, bullying, irritability, low motivation, and social isolation. These are not personality flaws. These are psychological responses to trauma.
Yet when parents were asked what would help, their answer was simple and powerful: “Sports. Let them play. That would change everything.” They understood something that researchers have confirmed: structured play and sports help children release psychological pressure, reduce fear and anxiety, improve mood and behavior, develop cooperation and friendships, increase confidence, and strengthen social connections.
For Mukhtar, the change goes deeper than water and crops. “As a farmer, my primary ambition is to see our land flourish and yield a consistent harvest throughout the year,” he says. “I long for my farm to become a testament to the dedication I have poured into it.”
He is clear sighted, though, about the challenges that remain. The droughts across Somalia are becoming more severe, not less, and water sources that communities have depended on for generations are under growing pressure from a climate that seems to give back less each year.
“Islamic Relief’s assistance has been a lifeline, reducing our worries about water. “However, with droughts becoming more severe, digging new wells or providing more dependable water sources would significantly enhance our lives.”
The crisis pushing communities like Mukhtar’s to the brink did not begin here. It is global in origin. Somaliland contributes a fraction of the world’s carbon emissions – yet its farmers, its children, and its land bear a disproportionate share of the consequences. Responding to that injustice – with practical, community-driven support that works with people, not just for them – is at the heart of what Islamic Relief does.
Islamic Relief is not waiting for the crisis to end. Across north, central, and south Gaza, the organization operates 26 educational facilities, safe spaces where children come to learn, yes, but also to play, to heal, to be children.
More than 6,000 children now have access to regular education in core subjects. But the real transformation happens beyond the classroom. More than 5,000 children are receiving mental health and psychosocial support through individual sessions, group sessions, and activities specifically designed to promote recovery and resilience.
Behind these numbers we employed are 52 trained educators and psychosocial workers who understand trauma. They recognize when a child needs to talk, when a child needs structure, when a child needs permission to just be a child. These are people who have been trained in emergency education, child protection, and the art of supporting young minds through crisis.
When researchers asked children which activity they wanted most, 52% chose football. Not because they dreamed of becoming professionals. But because they understood something profound: a football means you can forget, even for 30 minutes, what has been taken from you. You can laugh. You can belong to a team. You can feel strong.
Football requires almost nothing; a ball, a space, a few people. And yet, in the hands of trained facilitators who understand trauma, it becomes therapy. Children release stress through movement. They build friendships through teamwork. They experience joy in a way that feels safe because it’s framed as play.
International organizations from UNICEF to War Child to Save the Children know this truth: football in crisis settings is not entertainment. It is medicine. It is protection. It is the right of every child under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
But Islamic Relief knows that supporting children means supporting their families too. The organization conducts awareness and support sessions for parents and caregivers, teaching
them how to recognize their children’s emotional needs, how to respond to trauma, how to become protectors of their child’s mental health.
This is what real support looks like: education in the classroom, psychosocial services in individual and group sessions, activities that promote recovery, and families equipped to continue the healing at home.
Nearly 93% of children in Gaza want to play. They understand what they need. And now, in 13 facilities across the strip, 2,500 children are learning and 1,500 are receiving psychosocial support from trained professionals who believe that childhood, real, messy, joyful, healing childhood, is worth fighting for.
That deflated ball in a displacement camp is no longer just a toy. It is a symbol of what becomes possible when organizations refuse to accept that survival is enough. When they insist that children deserve to play. When they invest in safety, trained staff, structured activities, and family support.
It is a symbol of hope.