Hanya Aljamal was eager to start her studies at Goldsmiths University at the end of last month — but first, she had to get there. Running the gauntlet of the capital’s transport network for the first time in her life, and manoeuvring through the London Underground, proved to be an “overstimulating experience.”
“I asked a bunch of people if I was taking the right route,” she told The Standard, crediting Google Maps for her accomplishment. “I now have to charge my phone like crazy, so that I don't get lost in the middle of nowhere,” she added.
For most new London students, getting lost in the Underground is among the first crises they’ll encounter. But for this 28-year-old Palestinian, London’s commute had been just one small challenge in a much more extraordinary experience. Just days before starting her studies, she had left her family and her home in Gaza for the very first time — and with it, the reality of living through over two years of conflict that’s claimed nearly 70,000 Palestinian lives.
Hanya is among a small cohort of Palestinian students who recently left the besieged territory after securing a chance to study in the UK. Around 75 Palestinian students have so far arrived from Gaza after the UK government began helping with evacuations last month for scholarship holders. Hanya was among the most recent group of 17, arriving just before November to start an MA in Law.
Her journey to this point had been anything but straightforward.
After months of applications, English-language tests, video calls and waiting, it was only on October 20 that Hanya learned that she would finally be extracted from Gaza. She was given just two days' notice to say her abrupt goodbyes — and she had to leave everything behind.
“I wasn’t allowed to exit with anything except the clothes on my back and my phone, charger, and documentation,” she recalled. “That was a bit humiliating, to be honest.” While her sentimental belongings remained in Gaza, the memories of the last two years would always be with her. “I feel like I'm here, but not completely present,” she admitted, still adjusting to her new reality.
Having previously worked as an English teacher in Gaza, Hanya’s life had been upended just like everyone else’s in 2023 when Israel began its latest onslaught in the occupied territory. Her initial plans to study in the US were shattered, as were the buildings and community around her. For Hanya, the war had become an endless fight for survival, dodging bombs and bullets while navigating displacement and starvation.
During this time, Hanya decided to do what she could to help her community and started working for Action for Humanity. Operating out of Gaza as well as other countries in crisis, the UK-headquartered NGO has been instrumental in supporting the Palestinian people and distributing urgent aid in the Gaza Strip with Hanya’s help. Her humanitarian work also made her a target — the United Nations states that 543 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. Despite this, she never stopped, giving her all to her community while also speaking to journalists and bravely documenting her experiences as she tried to raise awareness of the reality on the ground.
“Hanya represents the very best of what Action For Humanity, and the entire humanitarian and development sector, stands for,” Charles Lawley, Director of Communications and Advocacy at AfH, said. “She embodies courage, compassion, and unwavering commitment to humanity, even in the most difficult circumstances. She continued to give with every fibre of her being in conditions that most people could not imagine, yet she lived through them.”
He added: “Hanya has not just been the voice of Action For Humanity's operations in Gaza, but the heart too.” Her work led to her being named the Young Humanitarian of the Year at the 2025 AidEx awards, something that she told The Standard was “a collective recognition" for all the humanitarians “putting themselves on the line of fire to help.”
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But accolades alone weren’t enough to secure her a place in the UK. Getting the necessary proof of her English-language abilities took months and is a hurdle that many Palestinian students struggle to navigate. Hanya also said, “it took me a village to get me here,” crediting many people for their help, including Alice Walpole, the Director of Goodenough College, the Kay Mason Foundation, AfH, the Gaza Scholarship Initiative, the Red Cross, and UK government officials. Rebecca Long-Bailey, Member of Parliament for Salford, was among those supporting Hanya’s journey: "When I first spoke with Hanya online about her tireless humanitarian aid work, she panned her webcam across to show me the view from Action for Humanity's Gaza aid work office: It was rubble, ruins, and devastation. Hope was in short supply,” she told The Standard, adding she was “delighted” that Hanya finally made it to London.
When the necessary approvals arrived, Hanya couldn’t quite believe how quickly things started to move. The journey began at 3am at the crossing dividing Gaza from Israeli territory beyond. After waiting for hours in the holding centre and various border checkpoints, Hanya finally crossed into Israel, where she was connected with UK delegates and offered her first bite of food and water. More travelling would follow as she continued to Jordan, where, for the first time in two years, Hanya saw a city that hadn’t been reduced to rubble. In Amman, shops were stocked, electricity was in full supply, and the sounds of explosions were replaced by the honking of cars and the city's hubbub.
Then, on October 27, having bought warm winter clothes and completed the necessary medical tests and biometrics, Hanya boarded a plane for the very first time and watched the Middle East disappear out of view. “I was lucky enough to have the window seat,” she recalled.
This entire journey — from Gaza to Goldsmiths — took little more than a week, and highlights just one of many emotional stories emerging from Palestine. It also doesn’t end there. The vastness of London, compared to the home she had left behind, was among the many things that confronted her and would likely take some time to get used to. “The concept of space and urbanisation and transport and lights and electricity and all that infrastructure is just like bewildering to me,” she continued. “Having lived in a blown-up war zone for the past two years.”
Adjusting to life at Goldsmiths was equally as daunting: she had already missed one month of crucial studies. And while she has experienced a lot of “kindness” in London, only now can she begin coming to terms with everything that came before.
Yet despite everything, Hanya also retains hope that her next chapter in London will help her make even more of a difference. “I want to follow up with my master's degree to be more empowered, to empower others and to have some agency or leverage some change in the world,” she said. And while Google Maps and her winter clothes may have helped her settle into London life, she also knows it's “an ongoing process.”
