How I'm making bricks out of ashes and rubble in Gaza | Majd Mashharawi

52,991 views ・ 2019-04-02

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00:13
Yes, it's dark.
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I'm wondering how long we can all stand it
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without picking up our phone and turning the flashlights on.
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Seconds?
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Minutes?
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A whole hour?
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Don't worry, I'm not going to give you my whole speech in the dark.
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But it's something I'm used to.
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For more than 10 years, I and two million people back home
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have been living in darkness,
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locked between two borders
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that are nearly impossible to leave, literally,
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in an area that spans 25 miles long and about five miles wide.
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I am Palestinian, and I am from Gaza.
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I grew up there and I still live there.
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In Gaza, we have a whole lot of nothing.
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And I aim to create something from that nothing.
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When a community is cut off from the world,
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all that we need to do is ... what?
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To think outside the box.
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Way outside the box.
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That thinking led me to two projects
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to address two serious issues in my community.
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The need for building materials and the need for electricity and energy.
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Two essential ingredients of life.
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Both are in lack of supply in Gaza.
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First, I'm not here ...
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just to talk about the occupation we have back home.
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The siege, the wars, the bombs, the protests
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or the death toll.
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I am here because I wanted to show that we can live through it all.
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I am here because I wanted to make a change.
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I am here to tell you
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that I am a statistic that cannot be ignored.
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In the 2014 war, thousands of houses were destroyed.
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Those houses were made from sunbaked stones and blocks.
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Those houses stood for decades and decades.
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Those houses were for my family, friends, neighbors,
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everyone I know.
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At that time, I asked myself a question:
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What can I do for people?
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How can I help them?
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I knew we weren't able to get cement, aggregate and sand
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to rebuild what the war destroyed.
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But also, maybe we can use something from inside the community,
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something we already had.
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I started to put things together.
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First, paper as a filler, instead of the aggregate we import.
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But that did not work out.
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What about using glass powder to replace part of the cement?
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But that failed, too.
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I guessed making building blocks out of mud would be a great idea.
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But unfortunately, it didn't work out.
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During the process of burning the mud blocks,
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we had a huge amount of ashes.
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And I was like, "Why don't we use those ashes?"
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The idea flashed in my mind.
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"Let's use it and combine it with the rubble of the demolished houses
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and make building blocks out of it."
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After more than 150 failed experiments,
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and over six months of research,
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I actually made it.
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(Applause)
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I created a building block
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out of the ashes and rubble of the demolished houses.
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It's here, it came all the way with me.
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Well, it came before me.
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So, it's lighter,
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it's cheaper, and it's stronger.
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(Applause)
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This building block --
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of course, you ask yourself, "How did this girl do it?"
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It's not that hard, and it's not that easy.
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First, we collected rubble from all around the Gaza Strip.
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Then we combined it with the ashes that came from the landfills.
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When the recipe is done, it's time for baking.
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So we mold the blocks, as you can see in the photo,
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and we cure it using water steam.
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I call the material "Green Cake,"
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and people now can use it not only to rebuild old houses,
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but also to build new complete structures.
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Green Cake so far has created jobs for more than 30 people.
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And we were able to rebuild around 50 apartments,
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each one of them the size of a household almost for eight people.
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We also trained fresh graduates, female and male,
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which is not very common in the community.
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And we got several awards, locally and globally.
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This block is not just only a building block.
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It changed the stereotype about women in Gaza
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that stated this type of work is meant for men.
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Education is the strongest weapon we have
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to fight for our freedom, decent life and future.
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My background helped me to do this block.
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I went to the Islamic University of Gaza, and I studied civil engineering,
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where there was a one-to-six female-to-male ratio.
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Everyone told me I would end up without a job.
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I went for a major that's meant for men.
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But their lack of encouragement did not deter me; it inspired me.
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(Applause)
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After this long journey with the block, and after two years,
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what Gaza does need is not just building blocks.
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We also need electricity, we need the energy.
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I developed a new company called SunBox.
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SunBox is a smart solar kit that we source from China,
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and we engineer it to fit the market need.
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It powers not only light, but also laptops, phones,
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internet connection, a fan or a TV.
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We teach local vendors and technicians
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to sell, install and provide customer services for people.
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We got the project off the ground
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by providing 15 families with solar energy.
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One of the solar units we installed in a refugee camp.
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The next day I came to check what happened with the solar,
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and I found a whole neighborhood watching a football match
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using our device.
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I was like, "Wow, that's going to create a huge impact in the community."
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That encouraged us to go to the second round
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of bringing 200 units.
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But each unit costs around 350 dollars.
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And a Palestinian family can't afford the 350 dollars.
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So we had to think, again, outside the box:
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How can we make this happen?
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If a whole neighborhood can watch a football match using one device,
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it means two, three and four families can share one device
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and enjoy the electricity.
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What we did is, we created a new business model
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called "sharing is caring."
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(Laughter)
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The sharing is caring business model
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says two families share one unit, three families share one unit,
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and they split the cost, so they can afford paying for it.
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Well, the idea caught on.
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I didn't expect that, but it just happened.
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In less than two weeks,
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we were able to provide over 200 people with electricity.
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(Applause)
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And the question here: How did the idea catch on?
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We went to community centers --
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those are places, you know for whom?
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Only for men.
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So it was so weird for a woman to go there.
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And I told them, "We have a great idea.
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We will give you electricity,
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you give us people who need this electricity."
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Now, families are approaching us from all around the Gaza Strip.
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I received a phone call from the team this morning, saying,
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"Majd, please, we are under pressure, we work 16 hours a day,
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we will not be able to work like this.
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Families are calling us every second. They want solar energy."
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Muna, from one of the families we installed the solar unit for,
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she told me, "You know, Majd,
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I've never imagined I will control something in my life.
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Now I can control my source of energy.
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I feel so special."
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What you take for granted is a privilege for others.
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People like Muna.
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She doesn't want to fight.
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She doesn't want to stay in a bad life.
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She's only looking for a better life.
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Our vision, or I would say, everyone's vision in Gaza --
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which I am very privileged to represent the people back home --
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is to have a good life, a future.
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We need to build the infrastructure of hope.
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We want to tell them it's possible to happen,
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it's possible to be treated as a human being.
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I don't have to cross four borders to come here.
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I can just go to the airport,
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see the people outside,
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see what the world looks like.
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Thank you so much.
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(Applause)
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