From the Ruins, He Built a School: The Extraordinary Story of Ahmad Abu Riziq, Founder of Gaza Great Minds
A teacher. A father. A visionary. How one young man's refusal to surrender to despair became a lifeline for thousands of children in Gaza.
There is a moment that changed everything.
Ahmad Abu Riziq was walking through the streets of Gaza, searching — as he so often did — for any space where children might still be learning. He spotted a little boy ahead of him, school bag on his back, running with purpose. Ahmad followed him, heart quietly hopeful, thinking the boy was heading to class.
He was not.
The boy was chasing parachute bags — parcels of food being dropped from the sky by humanitarian aid workers. There was no school. There was no classroom. There was no teacher waiting. There was only hunger, and the desperate sprint of a child trying to survive it.
Ahmad Abu Riziq — a teacher and a father of three young children — stood in that street and made a decision that would alter the course of thousands of lives.
“I felt I needed to do something,” he said, recounting that moment to The Big Issue. “I’m a teacher, and I’m supposed to change this — as with doctors, when they see the injured, they go quickly to help them.”
That moment — raw, human, and completely unremarkable in its setting yet extraordinary in its consequence — is where Gaza Great Minds was born.
A Teacher Who Would Not Look Away
He was 29 years old that day when he started Gaza Great Minds. He is 31 years old as of this writing today. Ahmad Riziq is a teacher. He is a father. He is a son who has known devastating, deep grief — having lost his own father to the brutality of war. He has been displaced eleven times. He has lost his family home. He has survived on one meal a day. And still, every morning, he shows up.
In his own words, written on his personal Substack profile, he says it plainly and without self-pity:
“I am an educator who has walked through the fire. I have lost everything I once called mine, including my father, to the brutality of war. Yet, in the ruins, I found my purpose. As the founder of the Gaza Great Minds Foundation.”
That purpose has a name, it has a face, and it has — against every conceivable odd — a future.
Gaza Great Minds Foundation was founded in May 2024. It began with a tent, a handful of friends who believed in the idea, and an act of profound, stubborn, unshakeable faith in the children of Gaza.
Ahmad told his friends his plan. Together, they set up that first tent. They expected perhaps 50 children to show up.
More than 200 came on the very first day.
From One Tent to a Movement
What followed that first extraordinary morning is a story of relentless, determined, daily courage — built one classroom, one child, one lesson at a time.
Today, GGM operates two tent schools in Gaza — including one at the Palestine Stadium in west Gaza City — serving more than 2,100 students, aged three to sixteen, across over 30 tent classrooms, supported by 33 dedicated teachers.
The curriculum covers English, Arabic, mathematics, and science. But it goes beyond academics. GGM provides professional psychosocial support — because Ahmad understands, deeply and from personal experience, that children living through war need more than lessons. They need healing. They need safety. They need the restoration of joy, and the quiet, powerful knowledge that someone believes in their future.
Schools run every day except Friday, from 8am to 2pm. Over 50 orphans are currently enrolled. Each tent school costs approximately £10,000 per year to operate — covering education, daily meals, safety, and psychological support for dozens of children who have already lost far too much.
GGM is now actively planning a third tent school — because for Ahmad, the work is never done while a single child in Gaza still has no place to learn:
“Today, GGM has two schools. Hundreds of students. Classrooms built from courage. But thousands more children are still walking through the ruins of Gaza with no place to learn — no teacher waiting for them. So we are asking for help. To open a third school. To reach more children. To give them what no one can ever take away.”
His founding philosophy, stated as early as June 2024:
“If you want to rebuild a country, you start with their minds.”
Teaching Through the Fire
What Ahmad and his teachers do every day requires something rarer than talent or training. It requires a quality of courage that most of us will never be called upon to demonstrate.
“Teaching in a tent is not easy at all. We are talking about high temperatures. It is not a safe place. You could be killed at any moment. We have lost a lot of our students. One of our tents was burned from one of the shrapnels of Israeli rockets while we were teaching.”
The danger is not abstract. It is measured in seconds.
“You hear bombs hovering 24/7. You hear when the rocket launches from the warplane and you wait for two seconds thinking: ‘Is that me? Will we be targeted?’ There’s a moment of silence and then: ‘Boom. It’s not us.’ Sometimes it’s just 100 metres away from us.”
His teachers arrive to class hungry. Ahmad himself survives on one meal a day. And yet, these teachers walk into their classrooms and choose — actively, every single morning — to be a source of light.
“The teachers come without enough food. They try to make the students smile while they themselves are crying. It’s not easy. But we need to do this.”
And once during these two+ years, after more than a month of silence with GGM’s online team — a silence that told its own story — Ahmad returned to write: “We will continue to the last breath.”
The Children Who Keep Him Going
Behind every number — every classroom, every student enrolled — there is a name, a face, and a story.
Tala, a ninth-grade student, lost fourteen members of her family. They are still buried beneath the rubble. And still, she comes to class every day, determined to become an English teacher.
Farah lost her entire family — and comes to class every day wearing a smile, because her mother told her to.
Amir lost his father, and his family lost everything. With GGM’s support, he started his own small business selling ice cream he made himself — a tiny, defiant, beautiful act of forward motion in the middle of devastation. Watch GGM’s video about Amir’s story here.
Mohammed, 14 years old, a 9th grade student with GGM, supports his family by selling whatever he can at a tent stall. Mohammed works and studies at the same time. There is no dedicated space, no prepared learning environment, no stable routine -- only persistence. At night, Mohammed returns to his tent. The space is dim, crowded, and far from ideal for learning. He studies by the light of a Nokia phone which he shares with the rest of his family in the tent. Mohammed is determined, persistent, and fully engaged with the skill of trying to focus while a war rages on around him. Mohammed is surviving, holding onto an education he desperately needs and wants, while surviving the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
Hala Hasab-Allah, GGM’s first student journalist and karate bronze medalist, stands before a camera and reports on what she sees with a confidence and grace that would move anyone, anywhere.
These are the children Ahmad sees every day. These are the children he built Gaza Great Minds for. And these are the children who, in turn, keep him standing.
“They are the only thing right now who make me want life, who make me want to stay alive — just to see them grow and see them successful, and see them safe and protected. If there was no Gaza Great Minds, I don’t know what I would be.”
“Every child who walks into our space is a reminder that education is not a luxury here. It is a lifeline.”
To read more about Ahmad’s journey with Gaza Great Minds in his own words, visit his recent story on GGM’s website here.
The World Has Taken Notice
What Ahmad has built has not gone unnoticed. Since GGM’s founding in May 2024, Ahmad Abu Riziq has been featured by some of the most respected media organizations on the planet:
Al Jazeera sent a reporter inside a tent classroom and broadcast his story to the world — calling GGM’s work “education as resistance.”
Sky News has interviewed him multiple times; in May 2025 he told them plainly: “People are dying out of hunger.”
The Big Issue devoted a full feature to his story.
Times Radio
Novara Media
CGTN
Middle East Eye
Middle East Monitor
The i Paper
have all given Ahmad a platform — and he has used every one of them to speak not for himself, but for the children.
From London to Doha, his voice has been heard. His face — a young teacher who decided the ruins around him were not an ending but a beginning — has become a symbol of what is possible when one person refuses, absolutely, to give up.
“I don’t lose hope in people,” he has said. Neither do we.
For more videos with press coverage of Ahmad Riziq and Gaza Great Minds visit GGM’s collection of media interviews featuring Ahmad and GGM on GGM’s YouTube channel, highlighting the voices, stories, and resilience of the people of Gaza. Through these discussions, GGM shares insights on education, innovation, and the urgent humanitarian issues facing Palestine.
Gaza Great Minds’ Patreon has a special collection of videos featuring Ahmad and GGM in the press and media also. GGM’s Patreon has several collections featuring a variety of windows from which to see the schools, the students, the teachers, the team, and the founder. Check it out. Follow Gaza Great Minds on their social media channels and online platforms. Share their stories. Support the students. Support Gaza’s children.
Still Rising — The Dream That Cannot Be Destroyed
Ahmad Abu Riziq’s dream has always been both fierce and simple: that no child in Gaza should be left without a place to learn, feel cared for, and grow.
That dream has survived bombs and displacement, hunger and heartbreak, silence and grief. It has grown from one tent and 200 children on a hopeful morning to two schools, more than 2,100 students, and a global community of advocates, donors, and dreamers who stand behind the children of Gaza.
Mostafa Salameh, Rising Dreams, Gaza Great Minds, and the Al Khair Foundation - Raising Dreams Up High for Gaza’s Children
In 2026, Palestinian mountaineer Mostafa Salameh carried a kite made from a Palestinian flag — hand-signed by GGM students, filled with their handwritten dreams — to the summit of Mount Everest, 8,848 metres above sea level. At the highest point on Earth, the dreams of Gaza’s children flew free: above airstrikes, above siege, above every force that has tried to make the world forget they exist.
(To learn more about GGM’s students, Mostafa Salameh and Rising Dreams, the children of Gaza and kites to Mount Everest, visit our previous articles discussing this exciting campaign and initiative for Gaza’s children and GGM’s students. GGM Students Rising Above: A Kite to Mount Everest and “Discovering Who We Are” -- Session Two with Professor Nariman and DREAMS of GAZA’s CHILDREN and the Kite RAISED at the Top of the World).
The third tent school is coming. It is being built not with money alone, but with the collective will of a community that has decided these children deserve everything we can give.
As Ahmad has said: “Every brick, every classroom, every book is a promise for the future.”
He has never broken a promise yet.
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To find out more about GGM’s founder, Ahmad Abu Riziq, visit him on Substack.
GAZA GREAT MINDS - Empowering the Next Generation of Gaza
Support & Follow Gaza Great Minds
Ahmad’s work — and the daily miracle of GGM’s tent schools — continues because of a global community that refuses to look away.
Please consider becoming part of it. You can make a direct and meaningful difference right now by visiting Donate to GGM & Rebuild Hope, or by joining GGM’s growing family of supporters on Patreon, where monthly members form the backbone of everything GGM is able to do on the ground in Gaza.
Stay close to the students’ daily stories and Ahmad’s dispatches by following GGM on X (formerly Twitter), reading their powerful long-form pieces on Substack, Patreon, and GGM’s website. Witness the beautiful power of classroom life in Gaza managed by GGM’s talented teacher, Noor Mariam on Instagram. Watch Ahmad’s major media interviews and student videos on YouTube. Catch joyful moments from the tent schools on TikTok. Connect with the GGM community on Facebook, explore long-form storytelling on Medium, join the growing conversation on Threads, and engage with GGM’s humanitarian mission on LinkedIn. For crypto and additional giving options, visit GGM’s donate page directly.
A nonprofit serving thousands of children in Gaza — through war, famine, and genocide — launched an online store! Purchase MERCH from GAZA GREAT MINDS ONLINE STORE
GGM’s Online Store on Redbubble Marketplace, the indie artists’ online market. Visit GGM’s Online Store here where every purchase helps GGM
Shop GGM’s merch online. Commemorate your support. Share GGM’s message and hope for the children of Gaza.
Every act of support — no matter its size or form — is a candle lit for a child in Gaza. 🕯️
In Closing
There was a moment that changed everything.
Ahmad Abu Riziq was walking through the streets of Gaza, searching — as he so often did — for any space where children might still be learning. He spotted a little boy ahead of him, school bag on his back, running with purpose. Ahmad followed him, heart quietly hopeful, thinking the boy was heading to class.
There was no school. There was no classroom. There was no teacher waiting. There was only hunger, and the desperate sprint of a child trying to survive it.
Ahmad Abu Riziq — a teacher and a father of three young children — stood in that street and made a decision that would alter the course of thousands of lives.
A decision to serve his community, to do something, even if it was just a tent made from scrap fabric and boards with a dirt floor. That beginning with an initial goal of school for fifty students has grown into tent schools serving thousands. But there are thousands more waiting. Please help Gaza Great Minds raise the awareness and funding it needs to get another school built this year. We only have a few months. The children need it now.
This is who Ahmad Riziq, the founder of Gaza Great Minds is. This is who started and leads GGM today. A young man, age thirty-one, a husband, a father, a son grieving the loss of his own dad, and a teacher-leader bringing hope back into Gaza every day. During a war. A genocide. Repeated forced displacements. Homeless, himself; yet surviving. And doing more than that. Thriving. Somehow. Even when it doesn’t feel like he is.
Ahmad Riziq continues to look at the situation he finds himself and his community in and he works against the destruction. Ahmad and Gaza Great Minds’ team build for a future they want to be. They build learning opportunities and education for the children in Gaza today.
Gaza Great Minds builds hope and heroes by protecting the dreams and hope of Gaza’s children through genocide, famine, disease, injury, loss of limb and loved ones. Just imagine how empowering this is for Gaza’s children. Just imagine the lives changed.
This is who Ahmad Abu Riziq is. This is who’s the backbone of Gaza Great Minds Foundation in Gaza. The world needs more people like Ahmad. The world needs more light and hope. It needs to hear Ahmad’s story and that of Gaza Great Minds. It needs to hear how a small group of people worked together being led by the vision of a young man who refused to accept things as they were. It needs to hear the stories of the children who are living in Gaza today, living through the genocide and trauma; yet they are overcoming.
Help us get their stories out. Share the story of Ahmad Riziq, Founder of Gaza Great Minds Foundation, a nonprofit in Gaza, during this war, during the chaos and suffering, a man who started a tent school for fifty and thousands came.
by Dede Bell
Gaza Great Minds is an educational and humanitarian nonprofit dedicated “to the vision to ensure every child in Gaza has access to education and the chance to rebuild their lives, amidst the genocide & beyond.”
Gaza Great Minds is dedicated to amplifying the voices, stories, and achievements of the children from Gaza. To learn more or contribute, visit
https://gazagreatminds.com
🕊️
References
Abu Riziq, Ahmad. Personal Substack profile biography. @ahmadrizik. https://substack.com/@ahmadrizik. Accessed June 2026.
Abu Riziq, Ahmad. “A Word From Ahmad, GGM’s Founder.” Gaza Great Minds Substack. November 23, 2025. https://open.substack.com/pub/gazagreatminds/p/a-word-from-ahmad-ggms-founder
Abu Riziq, Ahmad. “Carrying More Than Chalk: A Teacher’s Journey in Gaza.” Gaza Great Minds Substack. April 27, 2026. https://open.substack.com/pub/gazagreatminds/p/carrying-more-than-chalk-a-teachers
Al Jazeera. “Exclusive Al Jazeera Feature: The Story of Gaza Great Minds.” Interview with Ahmad Abu Riziq. September 14, 2025. Via Gaza Great Minds Substack. https://open.substack.com/pub/gazagreatminds/p/exclusive-al-jazeera-feature-the
Al Jazeera. Interviews with Ahmad Abu Riziq, Founder of Gaza Great Minds. March 16, April 28, September 1, 2025. https://gazagreatminds.org/press/
Bell, Dede. “More Hope for Children in Gaza — Gaza Great Minds Plans to Build Another School.” Gaza Great Minds Substack. June 5, 2026. https://open.substack.com/pub/gazagreatminds/p/more-hope-for-children-in-gaza-gaza
Bell, Dede. “Still, We Rise.” Gaza Great Minds Substack. June 13, 2026. https://open.substack.com/pub/gazagreatminds/p/still-we-rise
Bell, Dede. “DREAMS of GAZA’s CHILDREN and the Kite RAISED at the Top of the World.” Gaza Great Minds Substack. June 21, 2026. https://open.substack.com/pub/gazagreatminds/p/dreams-of-gazas-children-and-the
CGTN. Podcast interviews with Ahmad Abu Riziq, Founder of Gaza Great Minds. August 2, 2024; December 30, 2024. https://gazagreatminds.org/press/
Gaza Great Minds Foundation. Official YouTube Channel. @GazaGreatMinds. https://www.youtube.com/@GazaGreatMinds
Gaza Great Minds Foundation. Press & Media Coverage. https://gazagreatminds.org/press/. Accessed June 2026.
Gaza Great Minds Foundation. Official Website.
https://gazagreatminds.org
McRae, Isabella. “Thousands of children find hope in tent schools in Gaza: ‘We try to make the students smile.’” The Big Issue. July 2, 2025. https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/children-gaza-great-minds-tent-schools/
Middle East Eye. “As Israeli students return to classrooms, Gaza’s schools lie in ruins.” 2025. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-students-begin-school-year-gazas-schools-lie-ruins
Middle East Monitor. “If you want to rebuild a country, you start with their minds, says Gaza teacher.” June 30, 2024. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240630-if-you-want-to-rebuild-a-country-you-start-with-their-minds-says-gaza-teacher
Novara Media. Interviews with Ahmad Abu Riziq, Founder of Gaza Great Minds. January 22, 2025; April 28, 2025. https://gazagreatminds.org/press/
Rising Dreams Mission. Initiative of Mostafa Salameh.
https://risingdreamsmission.com
. Accessed June 2026.
Sky News. Interviews with Ahmad Abu Riziq, Founder of Gaza Great Minds. January 19, 2025; January 24, 2025; March 18, 2025; May 16, 2025. https://gazagreatminds.org/press/
The i Paper. Feature on Gaza Great Minds Foundation. October 12, 2025. https://inews.co.uk/news/world/human-gazans-resort-eating-bird-food-survive-3932253
Times Radio. Interview with Ahmad Abu Riziq, Founder of Gaza Great Minds. January 21, 2025. https://gazagreatminds.org/press/
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