GAZA CITY: Inside a Gaza City culinary academy that has been bombed and rebuilt twice during the war, students chop, whisk, and plate dishes with quiet determination, committed to mastering their craft despite the hardships that surround them.
At Smile Kitchen Culinary Academy, men and women receive training that brings a semblance of normal life in the otherwise devastated Palestinian territory, as well as valuable skills in an economy battered by years of war.
Huda Zamo, 34, told AFP she owned an online clothing business before the war, but decided to launch her own food services after being displaced by the war and seeing people’s need for food.
“When the war came, everything was destroyed. We went through famine and displacement,” she said, adding she learned about the academy via Facebook and figured the classes would be good for her to develop her new business.
According to the UN, at least 1.6 million of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents are facing high levels of acute food insecurity mainly due to Israeli restrictions on goods entering the territory.
