From 2021 to 2022, we financed the training of two young Palestinian women, Dunia and Mira, as speech therapists for hearing-impaired children at Hadassah College in Jerusalem (Dunia) and An-Najah University in Nablus (Palestine). Both successfully completed their bachelor's degrees in 2022 and can now professionally apply their acquired knowledge to benefit hearing-impaired children.

Afnan lived with her mother and three siblings in modest circumstances on the grounds of the Greek Orthodox Elias Monastery on Hebron Road in southern Jerusalem, on the road to Bethlehem. She earned money doing odd jobs, contributing to the family's livelihood. Nevertheless, she studied sociology, anthropology, and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She achieved her big goal of helping others as a social worker at the end of June 2023 when she graduated with a bachelor's degree. We were able to help her achieve this with our scholarship.

Mayar and Mariam graduated with honors from the Schmidt School in Jerusalem in 2020. Since the Schmidt School is a German school and they therefore took the German Abitur exam, they were able to enroll as students at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) in Aachen. Due to travel and residence restrictions, they were only able to begin their first semester as distance learners. They have been in Aachen since March 2021. Mayar studied materials engineering and Mariam studied business administration. Their parents were unable to finance their studies abroad in Germany. We have taken over the financing of their study visits here in Germany. Both took their bachelor's exams in Aachen in 2024 and are now in Jerusalem, where they must continue their qualifications in order to start their careers as soon as possible.

Nawras studied dentistry at Arab American University in Jenin, West Bank, Palestine. He has three siblings who are still in school and a brother who has just completed his schooling and is now also planning to study. Until now, his parents have been able to finance the education of their five children by sacrificing many other things. However, the harsh economic consequences of the pandemic have also led to financial cuts in his parents' income. If Nawras had not received support from our scholarship, he would have had to drop out of his dentistry studies. As it was, he was able to fulfill his dream of becoming a good dental surgeon in 2024, graduating with honors.

As the youngest of six children in a Palestinian family living in Jerusalem, 21-year-old Ghada initially worked hard to earn good grades in high school and graduate with her diploma. She then worked for two years to finance her studies in her chosen profession as a midwife. In 2019, she was finally able to begin her studies at the University of Bethlehem. But then the financial resources she had earned herself were exhausted. Through friends, she found her way to our foundation. After two and a half years, she graduated with honors in August 2022 and is now working as a midwife in the West Bank.

Chantal studied nursing at the Arab American University in Jenin, Palestine, until the summer of 2025. She is now an experienced and dedicated nurse. She is the eldest of five daughters in a family that has suffered a terrible fate. The father of the family worked as a tour guide in the tourism industry, but lost his job due to the pandemic. As a bus driver, he now earns only a fraction of his former income, which is no longer enough to support the family, including education costs. This led to conflicts within the family, which ultimately resulted in Chantal no longer receiving support from her parents and no longer being allowed to live in her parents' home. She also suffered from the consequences of sexual violence she had experienced in the past, which is why she was undergoing psychotherapy. She was not eligible for Palestinian government assistance because she lives in Israeli territory and not in the West Bank. In addition to her studies, she worked in a clothing store in Nazareth. Thanks in part to our scholarship, she is now working in her dream job.

At the age of 19, Youmna, the fourth of five daughters in her Palestinian family, began studying medicine at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, Palestine. The family lives in the small village of Jabal al Mukaber on the southeastern edge of Jerusalem. Even as a young girl, she knew that if she wanted to achieve anything in life, she would have to work very hard. With this in mind and highly motivated, she worked especially hard at school and ultimately achieved excellent grades in her high school diploma (grade point average of 99.1%). She is now in her fourth year of medical school. She wants to become a doctor, perhaps a pediatrician. She got married in 2024 and has been the mother of a young son since July 2025. However, this does not deter her from pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor with determination and energy, despite all the adversities she faces. We are supporting her with a scholarship.

Quassam has now successfully completed his medical degree at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, Palestine. He is the second youngest of eight children in his family. His father suffers from heart disease and is therefore unemployed. Under these circumstances, it was very difficult, if not impossible, for Quassam to continue his studies at all, relying partly on part-time jobs, minimal support from his family and state support in the form of loans. Since the start of the spring semester of 2022 at Al-Quds University, we have been supporting him with a scholarship. In August 2025, organised by the Friends of Al-Quds University Association (e.V.) and with our financial support – co-funded by a private donor, a doctor from Stuttgart – he was able to complete a one-month overseas placement in cardiac surgery at Oldenburg Hospital. This opportunity is reserved only for particularly qualified students with the highest grades. He is now completing a compulsory practical year at a Palestinian hospital, after which he will embark on the rather challenging task of finding a specialist training programme.

We met Hatem in person during our visit to Israel/Palestine in October 2021. He is the younger brother of our former scholarship holder Afnan. He lives with his family on a separate plot of land next to the Greek Orthodox St. Elijah Monastery in southern Jerusalem. In September 2021, he began studying medicine at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis. We have been supporting him with a scholarship since 2022. His results so far have been excellent.

Shahd was born and raised in Jerusalem. After finishing school, she initially studied laboratory medicine at the Arab American University. Her father is elderly, unemployed and suffers from heart disease; her mother died whilst Shahd was studying at university, meaning that Shahd had to look after her ailing father and was therefore unable to complete her studies at that time. Consequently, she lacked the financial means to go on to complete her studies with a Master’s degree at a later date. Although our scholarship was not sufficient to cover the full cost of a Master’s degree in medicine, it did enable her to fund a Master’s degree in medical management at Al-Quds University, thanks also to support from the university itself. In the final year of her Master’s degree, her sister fell seriously ill with cancer. Alongside writing her Master’s thesis, she cared for her sister and her father. At the end of May 2026, she successfully defended her Master’s thesis, thereby completing her studies.

Shrouq lives with her family (husband and two children, aged 3 and 1) in a small apartment in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. After training as a nurse at Hadassah College, she was determined to become a doctor and began studying medicine at AN Najah National University in Nablus in 2023. Her three-year-old son has severe asthma. Her one-year-old daughter keeps her awake at night. Nevertheless, Shrouq is now struggling through her clinical semesters with courses at university hospitals that are sometimes far away (e.g., in northern Palestine, in Jenin), despite the difficult mobility situation for Palestinians in the West Bank. We have been supporting her with a scholarship since 2024.

Until she finished school, 19-year-old Maram lived in Kafr Aqab, a suburb northeast of Jerusalem near Ramallah. To fulfill her dream of studying medicine and becoming a doctor in Israel, she took a unique path. She enrolled at New Vision University in Tbilisi, Georgia. Unlike degrees from universities in the West Bank/Palestine, degrees from universities in Georgia are generally recognized in Israel. So in 2024, she decided to go to Georgia to study medicine. However, the consequences of the war in Israel/Palestine suddenly led to her father losing his job. Her mother, now the sole breadwinner in the family, cannot afford the full cost of her studies. Since springtime 2025 we accepted her in our scholarship program.

Sami studied medicine at Hebron University. Until a year before his final exams, he was able to fund his studies with financial support from his family – he has five siblings. Due to the turmoil caused by the conflict in Israel/Palestine, his father lost his job. He would like to become a neurosurgeon. His academic results were excellent. His family’s financial hardship threatened to prevent him from successfully completing his degree. We accepted him into our scholarship programme in 2025. In June 2026, he successfully completed his medical degree at Hebron University with distinction.

Hala, 20, lives with her family in Anata/East Jerusalem. She graduated from Schmidt School in Jerusalem in 2023. She is now in her third semester studying fashion and jewelry design at Bezalel University in Jerusalem. We originally financed her Hebrew language lessons so that she could be admitted to Bezalel University. Due to the difficult economic situation of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, it has become impossible for her family to finance her tuition fees. We have therefore decided to resume our financial support for Hala so that she can complete her studies. In springtime of t 2026 the scholarship has come to an end.

Muhanad, 24, is getting a second chance. He lives in Anata/East Jerusalem. Muhanad was briefly in our scholarship program a few years ago when he began studying computer engineering at Arab American University in Jenin. But then he suffered a circulatory disorder that forced him to drop out of college. It took a long period of constant medical treatment before his physical and mental health stabilized again. In the meantime, he is working part-time at the local hospital in Anata to earn money as a temporary employee. This has now motivated him to train as a nurse. In Palestine, this is done through a nursing degree program, for which Muhanad has enrolled at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis. We are now covering the tuition fees for this program. His sister Mira, one of our first scholarship recipients, is helping to support him. With our assistance, she completed her training as a speech therapist at An-Najah National University in Nablus and now works in this profession. However, her salary and that of her father are not enough to finance Muhanad's nursing studies at Al-Quds University.

Fatima, 18, lives with her family in Biddu, a few kilometers west of Ramallah. She graduated from high school (Tawjihi) this year with very good grades. Her parents cannot afford to pay for her to go to college. She is trying everything she can to make it happen. Her friend Mira, one of our first scholarship recipients from East Jerusalem, is helping her. Fatima sees her own strengths in dealing with people, especially in conflict situations or in times of need. She therefore wants to study public relations at the Arab American University in Ramallah. We are helping her finance her tuition fees.

Zaid, aged 22, is the second youngest of seven children in a family of sheep farmers from the mountains east of Tubas in north-eastern Palestine. The family’s livelihood depends on a flock of 200 sheep. Originally, the sheep grazed on the pastures in the mountains between Tubas and the Jordan Valley. However, Israeli settlers have since occupied these pastures, meaning that the animals can now only be fed with purchased fodder. The fodder is expensive. The family lacked the money to pay for their children to complete their education. Zaid studied veterinary medicine at AN-Najah National University in Nablus, which we helped to fund during his fourth and final year of study. The fact that he has since been able to complete his veterinary studies and qualify as a vet not only fulfilled his personal dream but was also a vital necessity for many livestock farmers in the region. They no longer had a vet of their own among their ranks. Regrettably, in the spring of 2026, Zaid’s family had to leave their sheep pastures in the Jordan Valley and move to the town of Tubas. Jewish settlers had driven them from their grazing lands.

We’am’s dream is to become a dentist. She is 21 years old, has excellent school-leaving qualifications and is the youngest of six children in her family, who live in Seir, a Palestinian village near Hebron. Her father used to run a fairground ride business, but has been ill for some time and is therefore no longer able to work. Her next eldest brother, who is also academically gifted, has given up his dreams of further education and has taken over his father’s fairground business. However, as a result of the war, this business does not generate enough income to fund both We’am’s education and that of her brother Qassam. Qassam has been part of our scholarship programme for several years now and is about to complete his medical degree at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis. However, even after he graduates, it will still be some time before he can contribute to the family’s livelihood. He must first complete a year of practical training and then find a training post as a specialist. We’am had therefore already given up hope of ever being able to start studying dentistry. Thanks to our financial support, she has now been able to study dentistry at the Polytechnic University in Hebron.

Marian, 24, lives with her family in Beit Jala. Beit Jala is part of Greater Bethlehem and is a town with a large Palestinian Christian population. Her father, like her grandfather before him, is an olive wood carver. He usually sells his carvings to tourists, mainly Christian pilgrims who come to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. But since the coronavirus pandemic and now, above all, the war in the region, tourists have stayed away. As a result, the family lacks the money to finance the education of all five children. Marian was once a scholarship recipient of ours through the scholarship program of the Catholic University of Bethlehem. At that time, we helped her complete her studies as a laboratory biologist. However, it has become apparent that there are very few jobs for laboratory biologists in Palestine at present and probably for the foreseeable future. Marian herself came up with the idea of using part of her previous academic training to study special education in a special course at Al-Quds Open University, which has a branch in her hometown of Beit-Jala. By financing her tuition fees, we are giving her an additional opportunity to use her previous education to pursue her desired career. Marian is now involved with the German non-profit association “Tor zum Leben – Lifegate Rehabilitation e.V.” (Gateway to Life – Lifegate Rehabilitation), which runs a facility in Beit Jala for children with disabilities. She can hardly wait to start her master's degree program in the spring of 2026.

In the winter of 2025, Hayat reached out to us for help. She originally lived with her family in Gaza. During the war, the family was forced to flee to the Deir Al Balah refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, she has not given up on her dentistry degree, which she began in the autumn of 2025. She is able to complete part of her course online. But at least once a week, she has to endure the ordeal of somehow making her way through the rubble and armed conflict to reach her university in Gaza City. Thanks to the scholarship we have awarded her, she will be starting her third semester this autumn.