In Gaza, when everything fails, Social Entrepreneurship wins

I wrote this speech in the dark. My electricity goes off often, because I live from Gaza, Palestine: my home. Since 2006, we’ve had three to six hours of electricity per day. I live with dirty water, I don’t have access to proper healthcare or reliable electricity, and I’m subjected to frequent bombings. Despite these conditions while living, I have started two successful companies: a solar panel company called SunBox and a brick manufacturing company called GreenCake. I gave a TED talk and joined conferences worldwide. I created jobs for more than 65 people, employ ten 10 and provide clean water and solar-generated electricity for over 9k people in Gaza.

I left for the first time when I won the Japan Innovation Gaza Challenge. To get me out of Gaza I had to obtain four permits through the UN. It’s impossible to get them at the same time. Until this, I had tried over twenty times to leave Gaza.

Freedom is not only about where you can go and what you can do. It’s a mentality:a psychological state of mind. It’s about knowing where you come from and knowing that you can do something meaningful with your life. Freedom is realizing that even when you live in a prison, you have the power to make life better for others.