Mohammad Arafat biography

Mohammad Salah Arafat was born on 10th August, 1992; he was born in the Al-Zaytoon suburb, which is in the east of Gaza. Mohammad is one of eight children; he has four sisters and three brothers. Mohammad’s siblings in chronological order are; (1) Samah. (2) Sahar. (3) Mohammad. (4) Ala`. (5) Yousef. (6) Asma. (7) Yasser. (8) Fares.



Growing up in Gaza has been tough for Mohammad and his family; partly because of the troubles with Israel, and also because they’re a poor family; although Mohammad points out that, his family might of been poor, but none of them went without love and care, their lives have been filled with love because of his amazing parents, who he loves more than anything in the world.



As a child Mohammad liked his own company and he tended to play by himself; although he wanted to have friends he found it difficult to mix with children his own age, so, at times during his childhood he felt lonely as he had no friends to play with. All he had was his family, whom he considers his best friends, as they’ve always been there for each other; quite simply, ‘Mohammad’s family is his life’.



Mohammad began his education in 1997 in Al-Safad school, although he found school life hard to begin with because he wasn’t very successful, and because he had low marks he was mostly ignored by his teachers. Then his parents moved him to another school, but because he was still getting low grades with his school work he decided to leave school and look for a job; as he wanted to bring in an income to try to help his parents by taking away some of the financial hardships and help create a better quality of life for his family.



It was Mohammad’s parents who encouraged him to go back to school and keep trying to get past his difficulties; the love, support and encouragement his parents gave him made him take more of an interest in his school work; and gradually over time it was his English language school teachers who noticed that he had a gift for this subject; and finally the teachers started to take an interest in him, and they began to encourage and motivate him. Slowly and gradually Mohammad’s grades began to improve. In 2008 he reached the eleventh grade in Shohada ‘Al-Zaytoon secondary school; by the end of this school year his work had improved so much he had the third highest marks in the school that year!



In 2009 Mohammad took the secondary general examination where he got 83.7%; this high grade helped him join the Islamic university of Gaza to study English; despite his families’ difficult financial situation, his parents encouraged him to continue his studies. Mohammad worked hard during his time at university, and finally in 2014 he graduated from the Islamic university of Gaza with a degree in English language.



Now, like many Gazan’s, Mohammad has a love of learning and his aims are to continue with his studies, and eventually get his Masters degree. He would love to get out of Gaza and study in another country to obtain his Masters degree, but unfortunately the cost is so high, but Mohammad is not letting that put him off as he is determined to try his hardest to achieve his dreams. Mohammad would love to be able to work and pay for his education himself, but unfortunately the situation in Gaza is so extreme and there are no real jobs or money; the only jobs that are available are unpaid voluntary jobs, and Mohammad has taken one of these, so he can get experience and hopefully this experience will help him get a paid job. Mohammad is also hoping that this book project can become successful, because it could open more doors for him and other people in the same situation in Gaza.



Mohammad has already begun trying to get his voice heard and educate people about the true situation in Gaza; he self published his first book, which is a novel about the 1948 Palestinian catastrophe and about the last war on Gaza. At the beginning of the book, Mohammad writes about a true story he witnessed with his family during the last war, whilst they were fleeing their home and running for their lives. This book is currently available on Amazon.



Mohammad is just like any other man in Gaza, all they want is peace and to be able to live freely, not be locked away liked caged animals. Mohammad’s dreams are to get his masters, have a paid job, a nice home with a wife and family of his own. Will he be able to achieve these basic simple things, or will Israel prevent this from happening? One day soon, Palestine will be free.

Hope - A journey with many ups and downs

I am pleased to announce the launch of my first poetry book, co-written with the up and coming Gazan  (Palestinian) writer Mohammad Arafat. The book is called, 'Hope - a journey of many ups and downs'. One half of the poems are written by Mohammad, and the second half are written by me (Lisa-Lee).

Most of the poems written by me that are included in this book, I wrote as a teenager, there are some newer poems to, but a lot of the poems I wrote during the darkest most difficult times in my life; as a child I found writing poems very therapeutic; it helped me a lot, and I hope my words are able to touch other people and help them to.

Mohammad's poems are about his difficulties to, living in Gaza / Palestine,  and all the things he's had to survive during his short life. The reason why myself and Mohammad decided to do the poetry book together,  was because Mohammad knew how personal my poems were to me, and I didn't feel comfortable or confident enough to release such personal and painful past memories by myself; but Mohammad understood how important it is to let go of the past, so he offered to help me let go of my past, by holding my hand and sharing our work together; he didn't want me to feel or be alone.

The book 'Hope' isn't just a book, we are hoping to turn it into a project and a series of books. This first edition is being sold exclusively through Amazon, and there will be a second edition released next year; but the second edition won't just feature work by myself and Mohammad, it will also feature lots of other Gazan / Palestinian writers, and hopefully it will become an annual poetry book, featuring work by Mohammad and other Palestinian writers only. I am only involved in the early stages to help launch the project.

Myself and Mohammad are also trying to see if we can find businesses and people to bring investment into Gaza, and help some of the good projects that are already running in Gaza, that help improve the lives of the people living in Gaza. We believe that the best way to help Gaza, is to help the Gazan's help themselves. Nobody knows how to help Gaza better than the Gazan's.

Rohingya

Rivers in Rohingya run red with the blood of the dead 

Only because they're Muslims who pray five times a day 

Humiliated, beaten, raped, repressed, tortured and left to die

Incarcerated; denied basic human rights to life 

No one comes to help them or save them from this evil 

God only knows how they pray daily to be saved 

Yesterday should be history; but each day is the same

Allah help the forgotten people of Rohingya! 

The song of the angels

I was dreaming of you as the moon left the sky 

And dawns early sunlight broke through the morning dew

Awake, awake my beautiful little angel, I cried 

Awake, awake my purest little treasure 

But you are lost to me, you have been taken so far away. 

In the land of the night, where dreams can come alive 

There I can still reach out and touch your little hands 

There my whispers echo the love that is in my soul 

There you hear my voice calling 

There you feel my kisses 

Covering you all over, like feathers of snow. 

I'll be waiting for you where the sun meets the sky 

Waiting to hold you in my arms 

And say, awake my love, my beautiful angel 

I'll be waiting for the heavens call 

Waiting to hear the song of the angels 

And waiting to see the shadows of their wings 

Come calling for me! To take me home to you. 

I pray that I die in my sleep 

So this dream never ends 

And you wake up in my arms 

Never to leave my embrace 

This can only happen when I hear them calling 

When I hear, 'the song of the angels'. 

Lisa-Lee's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LISA-LEE DARK.

The Inner voice

Parents are the most powerful and influential people in a child's life, the words they use and their actions are the foundations of the life of their child! 

A parent has been given such a precious gift, if only all parents could see this. A parents job is to love, nurture and care for their children, to teach them how to love, how to see true beauty, how to accept themselves and others; but it is also a parents job to teach their children how to be confident, strong and brave, and teach them to believe in themselves, and teach them life skills, so they can fly the nest and live a good and happy life, and they can help heal the world of all the bad, corruption and darkness. 

Parents need to know that their child has the ability to change the world! To achieve the greatest of things! Fill them with love, respect, acceptance, hope, dreams, belief, goals and kindness! Never underestimate the power of kindness, a kind word has the ability to save a person's life!

World rare disease day 2015.

Please show love and support for beautiful children like Kaiden. Support rare disease day, February 28th, by wearing jeans.

http://globalgenes.org/world-rare-disease-day/ 


Growing up I have always been bullied and attacked because I was different. It wasn't just in my childhood that I got attacked, when I finally started to live my life and try to have a singing career, my bullies all came back. They tried to ruin my career and reputation by spreading lies about me. I got so ill and depressed I ended up losing my voice, and I thought my career was over, but thankfully my voice is returning, and I will restart my career, but I am very worried because I expect to be attacked again. People will try to ruin me and my career all because I'm different. I expect the bullying will begin again when my career starts to do well. I will have to be strong to cope with all the different lies people will say. People always attack people who are different, but in my case with my career, they think they'll be able to make money from my ruin! Please be more supportive to people who are different, you don't understand their struggles.