Hope Is A Verb - The Teen Sisters Rebuilding Gaza: Earth Prize Winners Tala & Farah Mousa

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

Since October 2023, much of the world's attention has been focused on the destruction in Gaza. This conversation is about something we hear much less about: rebuilding.Meet Tala and Farah Mousa, two teenage sisters from Gaza and winners of The Earth Prize Middle East, one of the world's leading environmental competitions for teenagers. Their project, Build Hope is recycling the enormous volumes of rubble left behind by destroyed buildings and transforming it into reusable bricks to help rebuild their communities. The idea began with a Year 9 textbook in Tala's school bag. Today, it has the potential to give communities beyond Gaza, the tools to rebuild using what's already around them. It's an idea that has the potential to reduce waste, lower rebuilding costs and support reconstruction in disaster and war zones around the world. Podcast Image credit: Ali AwadIn this episode:Displacement and disruption - life as a teenager in GazaThe inspiration behind their award-winning projectTheir vision for helping communities beyond GazaWhy rebuilding deserves as much attention as destructionTimestamps:00:35 What we know about Gaza and the Middle East Region04:18 Introducing Tala and Farah Mousa05:14 What they want us to know about their community05:58 The inspiration behind Build Hope08:12 A family and community project09:21 The problem with rubble09:54 Why its important for people in Gaza to have the tools to rebuild themselves10:53 Midpoint Reflections12:36 The next step for Build Hope13:17 What Tala and Farah have learned about themselves13:53 What hope means to these sisters15:49 Gaza 10 years from now16:37 Tala and Farah's message for young people around the world18:54 Final reflectionsSupport Build Hope:Contact [e-mail] for more informationAbout The Earth PrizeThe Earth Prize is one of the world's largest environmental competitions for teenagers, supporting young innovators developing practical solutions to the planet's biggest challenges.About Fix The News:Fix The News is a solutions-focused media platform sharing stories from the frontlines of progress - exploring what’s working in the world and the people making it happen.Subscribe & follow:If you enjoyed this episode, follow the podcast and leave a review - it helps more people find these stories.Production credits:Hosted by Angus Hervey and Amy Davoren-RoseProduced by Fix The NewsAudio production: Anthony Badolato, Hear That! This episode was produced in Australia on the lands of the Gadigal, Wurundjeri and Woi Wurrung peoples.

I can tell them that hope can rise. Hope can rise amid darkness, hope can rise amid destruction, and even hope can rise amid rappel. Welcome to Fix the News. I'm Amy. I'm Gus. And these are stories from the front lines of progress. I want to kick off today's conversation with an acknowledgement that it is really difficult

to know anything about what's happening in Gaza right now. Very difficult to get a clear read. on the situation. It continues to be a place that is shrouded, wrapped in the fog of war. And even though we know that a ceasefire was agreed last year, that there is still sporadic conflict, that there are still engagements, that we still have ongoing militarization throughout that region,

we know that millions of Palestinians are still displaced. And we also know that there is no security for anybody in that region. People living in Israel, people living in neighboring regions. We know that there is the wider conflict with the Iran war as well. And we also know that the reality for daily life on the ground for millions of people is brutal. The daily conditions for people living in tents, living amongst rubble are intolerable and conditions that we could only ever imagine. That's why I think today's conversation is such an important one. This is a really special conversation.

We were recently connected with two teenage sisters, Tyler and Farah Musa, who live with their family in Gaza. And we found out about them because they recently won something called the Earth Prize. They designed a machine that can turn all the rubble around Gaza into usable building blocks. Our idea is simple. We turn rubble into useful building blocks. Using local materials and training communities to rebuild safely with what they already have. Beyond Gaza, we want this solution to reach conflict and disaster zone around the world.

Representing the Middle East globally means showing the world that even in the heart places, innovation and hope can rise and that make us proud. From the moment I first heard about this, Gus, I was so excited to speak to them. but unfortunately I just want to flag that the day this conversation was recorded, I actually had my mother-in-law's funeral. We didn't have any opportunity to change the date because the logistics are so hard over there. They had to find a cafe and it had to be available on a certain day. It had to be after they finished school. And so thankfully, our wonderful producer, Anthony, stepped in, which I'm so grateful for.

so incredible to be part of this interview and then it goes to show we are such a tight-knit team and i remember after the interview we stayed on for a little bit of a debrief but that debrief was really just long exhales of and followed by wow this conversation affected me pretty deeply this is the first time i mean you we have been following about what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in the wider region since 2003 and of course even longer than that but this was the first time I have ever spoken directly to someone who is in Gaza itself and there was something about hearing from people who are on the ground that brought it home in a way that a

thousand news reports and a thousand images just haven't been able to Tala and Fara, welcome to the Fix the News podcast. We are so pleased you have joined us from Gaza. We know that the connection is difficult. We're delighted to have you. Okay, thank you. It's our pleasure. And we are really, really excited to be here.

So you have both been displaced several times during the war. Can you tell us a little bit about what life has been like for you and your family in the past few months? It was something that away from the humanitarian life. Maybe we can say, and I'm sorry for this word, it's life for animal, not for human beings. We faced multiple displacement, starvation and uncertainty. There was pumping everywhere. Fear was our usual emotion in that few months. And it was a really hard time.

What would you like people around the world to know about you and your family and about your community? We believe that people, the vision that they had about us in Gaza, it's always about pumping, killing and like just... Number. And we are just number in the news as Farah said. But we want to change this vision. We want them to see that we are, we have passions, we have, we have potentions, dreams, dreams, the talent and passion. We just want to be seen, we just want to be heard from the world. And I believe that our youth here in my community, if they just have the chance to be here,

then to be seen, they will be awesome. When you look around and you see all the rubble from the bombings, what made you think maybe we can do something about this? Maybe if we talk about the moment that our idea was clicked in our mind, It was a really sad moment because it was in the day after our house was bombed. But when there was like a mixture of sad feeling and the pumping of our home, which was like it's not about home and walls, no, it was something more bigger than that. It was memories. It was chilled. It was a life for five persons.

In that day, I just wanted to look for anything that will remind me with my home. And in the tent, we don't have wardrobe. because there is no place for a wardrobe. We only have a bag. Like a bag that I, when the day that we were first to displace and to leave our home, I bought all my things in it, not all my things, we think that I can hold it in the small bag. We are talking about a school bag, okay?

So in that bag, there was a subject, the pock of a subject we called technology. In my ninth grade when we were forced to discipline, there was a lesson in that book, that book about how we make pricks or how we make stones of blocks in usual like not our idea that we turn ripple into them the usual one that we talk it from the mountains so when i just have have a look about my puck and the that lesson about how we make a pricks the idea clicked in my mind like what if we turn the ripple the problem itself into something useful the pricks that we want to rebuild our community with them and anything in my life. The first one that I go for, it's my sister. So I go to her

and I told her, what if? And the what if a question is start to appear here. What if we turn Rupple into something useful? What if we make rebuilding, not just waiting for it? Because we believe that waiting or relaying on the external aid will be really not easy. Like it will be really hard. What did your family, what role did they play in this project? We believe that without our family, our journey will be end like at the beginning of it because they were everything, especially our mom, because she is also an industrial engineer. So she has a big experience in how to make these things. And they're also my grandpa who was helping us in the technical things, like making the mold

and, you know, it's really dangerous, especially for us, and we're still so young. So he was the one who helped us, who helped us in making the dangerous things. How many bricks have you made? At the beginning, we start to make prototypes. So the prototypes are no if we will count them or not, but we made like multiple prototypes until we reached the final version, which was the best one, and the one that we applied for the competition with it. after that we made also we can say seven or eight blocks and we give them like like a present for our neighborhood what do you think would have happened with that the rubble if it wasn't for um

what you're now doing it will end and it's a place because there is no government here there is no like any any people who is especially for have a have a job especially for it. So it will be in its place and it will make pollution, it will make disease as it is like there is disease, the pad disease here in Gaza. So yeah, it will only be a purr. It will pardon us.

I just can't get over how much commitment you have. Why is it so important for people in Gaza to be able to rebuild homes and communities themselves? A simple answer is there was a ceasefire and there is a ceasefire nowadays and there is supposed to be a rebuilding or reconstruction start to be after the ceasefire so we've waited maybe for five or six months and there is nothing till now so we can't relay on external aid because they can't come to Gaza there is like a siege and something so So we are the one who will repel our community.

And we don't want to relay on other or external aid because it won't enter Gaza. There's just no denying, there's no denying the reality of what it is that they're facing. It got rid of all the gatekeepers and barriers that stand in between us and on the ground reality. And I think it's such a powerful reminder that behind the headlines, behind images and behind all the grabs and the takes on social media,

there are very real people and very real stories. As I was listening back to the conversation, Tala, who is the older sister, she was the one that did most of the talking. There was this quality in her that you just don't see in other teenage girls. it just really struck me that at that age, to have one foot so firmly planted in the reality of war and destruction, and the other one so firmly planted in creating agency

and a better future, like that is such a powerful place for a young woman to be. For me, it was the energy and determination that these two sisters had to not only better their situation, but better others. I hate to use the term inspiring because I feel like so it goes for every single interview we do. I feel like I'm left inspired. Now that you've won this prize and you've applied and you've got the money, what is the next step? In the next month, when we will receive the money of the competition, the prize itself, we will make workshops and we will train people on how to make the project.

So we will make the workshops, we will train young people, especially youth, we intend to specialize it for the youth, and we will give them the process and we will also teach them about the competition. So they have the opportunity, if they have any other ideas, to apply for them, it and also to make our idea apply. Like they can make it in their community. What do you think you have learned about yourselves? What do you know about yourself now that you didn't know about yourself a year ago?

The first thing that I'm thinking about is patience. We, especially in the world and in our idea, we learned how much patient we are. Like I didn't expect from myself that I am. that patient and I have patience about how life's going. You've called your project Build Hope. Yeah. Which I think is such a beautiful name. Thank you.

What does hope mean to you right now? Hope means to us is the opportunity that we made something and that thing isn't only here for Gaza. It was spread all over the world or worldwide. So this opportunity give us hope in a way that you can't imagine. That's how we become heard and seen. It's a great thing that it's really, really not a how I can say it? Not a well-known thing in our community.

Here, especially girls like us, they just want them to do the daily life of their past generation. So you will only grow up and go to school. Maybe you will go and maybe you want. Then you will get marriage and then all your life you will do it just for your children. So me and my sister, we don't want to live this life and we want to do something and we did something. So the privilege that we have listened and we've heard from the world is something really fabulous. And we want not only to be Farah and Thala, no. we want to represent all the youth here in Gaza,

the youth that they have talents and they have power, maybe bigger and greater than us, but they want to represent them. And to show that here in Gaza, it's not all about killing and war and genocide, no, it's something more bigger and we love life, and we want to live it peacefully. Tyler, thank you.

Farah, I wonder if it's possible to ask you the same question and you can answer in your own language if you would like to. Sorry, she is a pit ill. So if you can continue with me, thank you. Of course, of course. When you imagine Gaza, 10 years from now, when you are in your 20s, what does Gaza look like? I'm sorry to tell you that,

but my vision about Gaza in 10 years, I don't think it will be something really beautiful as you are waiting for me to be this my answer. But I hope, I hope so. I hope that Gaza will be something more beautiful. It will be repelled at least, like at least it will be repuls. And maybe there will be universities or college. Because, you know, there is no universities.

There is no schools. So even if I want, like, I'm in my final year in high school. So even if I want to attend universities, I can do it here in Gaza because there is not universities. We've touched on it. But what would you say to young people? around the world who feel powerless about their future. What would you say to them?

I'll always try. Always, if you have the privilege to try, always give it a shot and try. Never say I don't want, never say it won't happen. Maybe it will happen. No one, no. So just have this shot and try it. I don't tell them the journey will be easy. No, it will be hard.

We can't say it's a journey without being hard. But I can't tell you that it's really interesting that it's hard. So the interest is unpeying hard. So you just want to try and always have hope. Like us, we are in, I can tell you that we are in the hardest circumstances in the life. And even though we didn't lost hope, maybe at the beginning of the where we were hop, But after that, we woke up. We woke up and we just have the dream that we want to be the future of the city.

And we are the here, we are Gaza's youth. So we are the one who must rebuild it. Tala, thank you, Farah, thank you. Thousands of people are going to listen to this conversation that you are having with us right now. If there was one message that you could tell those people, what would the message be? Simply, hope can rise. I can tell them that hope can rise. Hope can rise amid darkness, hope can rise amid destruction, and even hope can rise amid rappel.

Always have a vision toward your eyes and always have a hope in your heart that hope can rise. Our next step is to launch workshops. Strain young people produce a blocks and help this idea grow from 100 people to thousands. One thing that came up for me a lot listening to this conversation was this whole idea of rebuilding. The headlines are really fast to catch the destruction and they're always quite fast to catch the peace agreements. But this whole phase of rebuilding Gaza, it is just, it's going to be a part of the story that is not going to get a lot of attention. And yet, it feels, it just, it feels so epic.

I just, I can't believe that we don't focus on this more. It will always stay in the shadows that, you know, the cameras will move on to whatever the next conflict or whatever the next hotspot are. And in their wake is disaster and destruction. and we should continue to bear witness to that and to worry about that and not to minimize the challenges of that. But I think it's also important to understand

that people are just as capable of building and rebuilding as they are of destroying. And this conversation, I think, is part of a bigger project of trying to keep some attention in those places once the cameras have moved on. I mean, even as a metaphor in its own, you know they've they're literally building rebuilding from from rubble um you know they're

what is next for those for those for these two what what is going to happen next what i'm i'm i'm really excited to to keep an eye on their journey there was a deep sense of sadness for me coming away from this um you know these these these these two girls who are so bright and so talented. You know, they, their options are so limited. And yet even within that tiny narrow band, they're able to find a glimpse of possibility. And I just wonder, you know, what would it be like if those talents were applied

in a place or in a country or at a time when their talents could be fully realized as opposed to, you know, figuring out how to build. bricks from rubble. And right now, that's what they're doing and it's extraordinary, but I just wonder what else would have been possible. And so it feels, on the one hand, like an incredible story of solidarity and resilience. And on the other hand, it feels like a story of wasted opportunity and folly that people like this are limited to doing a solution that is so narrow in this particular place and time. It is something that I really want us to keep following because I feel like it's so easy

from where we sit to give up on things and to give up on situations or to file them in a part of our mind where it's much more comfortable and we can kind of get on with our daily life. But when you hear about these girls and what they're doing and what they're up against, we just don't have an option. we have to at least keep our attention there. Following this conversation, we decided that we would actually top up the donation

from the Earth Fund, and that they're going to be our next charity recipients. And we're in touch with them and their families right now. And both of them right now are OK and are working hard on the ground to try get the solution across the line. In a situation that could be described as hopeless, and a lot of aid organizations are still struggling to get in.

These girls and this family have decided not to wait, and they have decided to do something. And that is such a common theme throughout all of our conversations that we have on this podcast. This one just hit in a really different way. We know there are a lot of podcasts out there. It means a lot to us that you chose this one. It's made possible by our paying subscribers.

So if you're one of them, a big thank you. And if you want to support what we do, you can find us at fixthenews.com. This show was produced by Amy Rose with audio by Anthony Badalato from Here That. It was made in Australia on the lands of the Guttagal, Wurundry and Woiwurong peoples. If you liked it, hit subscribe.

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