University Scholarships for Students in Palestine

Thank you so much for supporting our university scholarship project. Since our last student spotlight on seniors got a great response from you, we thought we’d give it another go this year, and so we spoke to the amazing and ambitious Malak. Malak is just one of many impressive young people who are receiving scholarships thanks to your support.

Malak is a 19 year old from Jenin, currently studying Medicine at the Al-Quds University in the West Bank. She’s a straight A student, involved in so many voluntary projects, and from her cover letters and essays (that she attaches to her application) she feels a huge sense of responsibility towards her family. This is her second year receiving a scholarship from MECA. Normally it is our aim to draw smiles on their faces when telling them they’ll receive the scholarship to ease a little bit of the huge financial burden on their shoulders; but this year it was Malak who drew a smile on our faces.

She filled every essay question so eloquently and beautifully, but additionally this year she sent us a “thank you” video for granting her the scholarship last year, and we were simply touched, very touched.

Malak’s life is not an easy one. Her father has been detained by Israeli forces time and time again put under administrative detention (held without trial), and now after he was released he was injured during his work as a construction worker so he’s unable to do continue working. Her mother has raised her and her 5 other siblings, her and her brother are both studying at university level while the rest of her siblings are in school.

Covid-19 hit them hard, like lots of people in Palestine and around the world. Her father is unable to work and so Malak helps with the education of her younger siblings while studying remotely in addition to keeping up with her own studies and voluntary work.

Yet when she wrote us this year and sent us the video, she did not focus on any of this. She focused on her future ambitions of becoming a pediatrician and setting up a fund to support students with financial difficulties to pursue their dreams. She even wrote us several times asking to volunteer with us (on top of everything else she’s involved in), because she loves how we work on supporting children in Palestine, especially in education.

Students like Malak always warm our hearts and push us to continue so we’re able to be yet another supporting figure in their amazing journey to reach their goals. In her video she says towards the end after the “thank you” that she’s happy we did not “forget about her this year” since we reached out to our previous scholarship recipients to renew their applications.

To her we say, we could never forget an ambitious, thoughtful, and caring student like you. On the contrary, students like you make everything we do worthwhile. So we say “thank you” to you, Malak, for being who you are and giving the opportunity to be part of your journey.

And thank you to all of you who contribute to this project so we are able to offer scholarships to more than 100 students each year.