A Morning That Reshaped
Ahmad’s Life

We remembered ten-year-old Ahmad from last year’s admissions. He was one of the first children to arrive and one of the last to leave.

For the past two years, his mornings had followed a different routine. There was no schoolbag to pick up before leaving home. Instead, Ahmad carried a yellow jerrycan, bigger than he was.

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Every morning at 6 AM, I went with my father to find the water truck. Sometimes we waited for two hours. Sometimes the truck did not even come. That was my whole day.

Days spent searching for water left little room for the ordinary things Ahmad once knew as a student, let alone the dreams he had for his future.

On his first day back at the Deir Al-Balah Academy, Ahmad sat in the second row. He did not say much. His attention kept returning to a small library corner we had built: thirty books arranged inside a wooden box.

We invited each child to choose one book to take home for the week. Ahmad picked one about the ocean and held it tightly.

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I used to carry water. Now I can carry a book. It is lighter but makes more sense and is real.

This week, Ahmad still wakes up at six in the morning. Only now, he wants to be the first in line for school.

He no longer begins his morning looking for the water truck. He looks forward to the next page of his book, the next school day, and a future he can imagine again.

Ahmad wants to become a good teacher when he grows up.

The hour has not changed. What Ahmad carries into the morning, and what he believes he can become, has.