Despite everything that's going on in the Gaza Strip including the ongoing unrest and economic turmoil, many young people are remaining hopeful and in small ways, trying to make a positive difference in their communities.
One such example is Antika, an interior design project in Gaza, named after an antique in Arabic, that aims to encourage people to recycle waste material and turn it into something beautiful they can use to decorate their homes and brighten their days.
Palestinian architect Doaa Kamel started a crowdfunding campaign on Zoomaal to turn her idea of combining interior decor and environmental responsibility into a reality that can reach more people in her community.
Kamel and her team of designers have decorated multiple houses in Gaza, including their own, using recycled materials. They have turned cartons into makeup bags, glass bottles into centerpieces, cans into children's dolls and car tires into tables.
But to make their designs available to a wider audience, they need around $8,000 to set up an office space and buy the materials they'll need to create them.
Antika's team believes that small changes in the surrounding environment can make a big difference in the lives of those inhabiting that environment; they believe in the power of simple acts such as painting your bedroom a different color or changing the furniture in your living room, to create joy and hope.
They also believe that neither money nor environmental resources should be wasted in the process, that's why recycling is their strategy of choice.
In accordance with that vision, the team wants to use the funds to do more than just kick-start their business and promote their products. They also want to create workshops to teach others in their community how to recycle so that they can inspire more and more people to care for the environment and find beauty in simplicity.
In addition, the team hopes that by spreading the culture of recycling through the workshops, they can help motivate young people in their society to use environmentally responsible methods in order to create opportunities for economic growth in the Gaza Strip.