daliaawad

Thank you! My father is an engineer and my mother has a master degree in psychology. My father works for al-baladiyya, I think in English it’s called the municipality. My mother is working with the Gaza Community Mental Health Program which is an NGO. My mom’s salary is stable but my dad’s is not.

The problem is that there are few jobs in Gaza due to the wars and the closed borders. Lucky us they are working but my father is earning just 50% of the actual salary. This happens a lot in Gaza nowadays. The economic situation has been getting a lot worse for the last few years.

Oh, I am glad you liked my blog! Thank you for your sweet words. I hope someday I meet all of my friends from the West bank and maybe share a photo together :)

Thank you! I am planning to continue my studies after the internship :)

Exactly! I program left to right in English like the whole world I think. :)

The team I will be working with is located in Poland. But the internship will be remotely so I am working on getting a visa to Germany because Germany has a consulate service in Gaza so it’s easier for me to get that visa. I heard about another Manara participant who got into Google Poland and then had to wait 8 months for his visa because of Covid-19. He’s actually in West Bank and there is consulate service there but they stopped during Covid and he recommended I try Germany instead.

I think of myself as Gazan and Palestinian. Just like a Newyorker and American. But it was important to choose the word Gazan in the title because the Gaza situation is different from other parts of Palestine. Gaza is a very small piece of Palestine near the mediterranean sea. It’s 35 km long and 7 km wide. We are surrounded by walls on 3 sides and most of us have never been able to travel, that’s why I said Gazans because Google seemed as distant as an alien planet.

Well, we have good wired connections here in Gaza from Paltel and other companies but our phones only have 2G because of the political situation. The main problem can be with the electricity going off for long hours but we have alternative solutions: generators, batteries, etc.

Oh this is so kind of you. Right now I am all set but it is possible that I need help especially with simple things like how to find a place to stay when I arrive in Germany this summer. Again, thank you for offering help :)

Yes I know! Gaza is so much more than that. There are a lot of smart motivated people. Did you know that one of the people who worked on the Mars Helicopter - NASA that just landed on Mars is from Gaza? https://www.linkedin.com/in/elbasyouni/

I want you to know that I’m not the only one. I worked hard but so did lots of other people and some of them are even smarter than me. 4 people from Manara in Palestine got into Google this year and I think there will be more (I was in Manara’s 4th cohort and the 5th cohort is just applying to jobs now. I think at least 6 people are interviewing at Google from both West Bank and Gaza).

I’ll keep you updated and if you want I can tell them to share their stories here too :)

Thank you so much Faris! It was such an amazing experience interviewing at Repl.it and I am glad I got to know you. For sure, I will come back and reapply to to join your team :)

Ooooh thank you so much! That's great! Also, why don’t you hire someone else from Palestine though? They’re just as good and they’re available now…

I was in Manara’s 4th cohort. The 5th cohort just started hunting for internships and jobs. Two of them are my friends Hend and Rula, they’re just like me, they went to RBK and then Manara. You can meet them by emailing Manara (www.manara.tech)

Yes you should! The Manara community is amaaazing. They are super smart motivated people who already have computer science or engineering degrees. Manara teach us how to interview at companies… both technical and soft skills… I have a bunch of friends in their 5th cohort who are looking for opportunities right now.

By the way the CTO of Manara is from Gaza too. She often tells me I remind her of her a few years ago. :))) She lives in Silicon Valley now and started Manara because she knew how many smart people there are in Palestine.

Yaasss of course! This is why I wrote this post and am sharing on social media too. :) lots of people are contacting me now on facebook asking how to do it. www.manara.tech will help them. that’s how I got into these companies. their mission is to help palestinian and middle east engineers fulfill their dreams and work at international startups & companies! Now that I got in, I am going to go back and mentor the next Manara cohorts to help more people do it

yes exactly! this is something that I discussed a lot with my mentor at Manara and this is what we agreed on. I’ve never been on an airplane before, I think being in Europe will be life-changing for my career and also for my personal experience. Gaza is tiny, it’s 30km x 6km. I want to see some new things. :)

Thank you so much Amjad! I really love Repl.it and I think I am a startup person in my heart. If you have a fall or spring internship opportunity don’t forget about me!

Thank you so much! Sure I can come back and share more updates! :)

Hiii everyone, this is my first time posting here! I have read Hacker News sometimes but only thought about sharing my own post after seeing Manara's post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25849054) last month. I asked them if I can share this here and they said it was a good idea. :)

I’m a 19-year-old Gazan female who participated in Manara last year and got internships at Google and Repl.it. I’m so excited I will spend this summer at Google in Europe! I got lots of questions about my experience when people heard about it on Facebook so I wrote this blog post to let other young engineers in Palestine and the Middle East know how they can get into amazing companies like this too.

Thank you!