Their plan is to hold hands-on workshops where participants learn each step directly. By using simple tools and available resources, they hope young people can carry the method back to their own peers and communities.
“Young people are a huge part of the community and the future of Gaza,” Farah says. “Involving them gives them practical skills, hope and a sense that they can actually contribute instead of only waiting for outside solutions.”
This is central to Tala and Farah’s vision. Gaza’s youth should not be treated only as victims of destruction or passive witnesses to decisions made elsewhere. They believe that young people must be involved in the rebuilding process in every way, whether technical, social, or emotional.
For Tala and Farah, the prize is recognition that young Palestinians in Gaza are still thinking, designing and imagining futures, even as the present is being destroyed around them.
Their message to other young Palestinians is direct: “You are the future. And you are the one who should rebuild it.”
When they first explain that rubble can be reused, the sisters say many young people are surprised.
The material is usually associated with destruction and loss. But once the method becomes clear, surprise can turn into excitement. The rubble remains tied to pain, but working with it gives young people a way to participate in recovery rather than only witness devastation.
A future beyond rubble
The prize has strengthened that sense of possibility. Tala and Farah say they believed in the idea from the beginning, but winning The Earth Prize gave them confidence that their solution could reach more people and grow beyond what they first imagined.
For them, the award also sends a message that Palestinian youth are not only surviving unbearable conditions, but creating solutions, leading initiatives and representing their communities internationally.
“Winning the prize means that our voices, experiences and efforts were seen globally,” they say. “It also gave us hope that young people from Gaza can still innovate despite everything happening around them.”
Their motivation, they add, comes from the situation itself and from the belief that even small ideas can create real change.
“Hope becomes something you choose to hold onto,” they say.
That understanding also shapes how they think about Gaza’s reconstruction. As states, organisations, donors and outside actors discuss rebuilding the enclave, Tala and Farah believe the process must involve the people who live there.
For them, rebuilding Gaza cannot be reduced to concrete and infrastructure. It is also about people, daily life, education, mental health and giving communities the ability to participate in rebuilding their own futures. Any meaningful reconstruction, they say, must restore dignity, safety and opportunities for communities.
Their personal dreams grow from the same sense of responsibility. Tala hopes to study international law to defend people’s rights and dignity. Farah wants to study translation and languages to become a voice that carries Palestinian stories to the world.
Their ambitions are not separate from Building Hope–Palestine. They come from the same desire to serve their community, protect Palestinian dignity and help Gaza’s story be heard beyond images of destruction.
With the prize funding, the sisters want to launch workshops, provide safety equipment and tools, improve testing, produce more prototypes and build partnerships that can help scale the project within communities.
They also believe the model could be adapted in other conflict- and disaster-affected areas facing similar problems.
But for now, the project’s message begins in Gaza.
“We truly want to say Gaza is not only destruction,” the sisters say. “Behind every image are people with dreams, ideas and talents.”
Building Hope–Palestine does not claim to rebuild Gaza alone.
But in the hands of two teenage sisters, rubble becomes more than debris. It becomes a material, a method and a beginning — a way for Gaza’s young people to imagine, teach and help build a future they have the right to shape.
