Support Sondos's studies - from Gaza to Lancaster

Aim

Sondos is an incredible writer from Gaza City and a survivor of Israel's genocide. With your support, she may be able to study in the UK.

At just 26-years-old, Sondos Sabra has achieved so much. In spite of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, Sondos has co-authored several books including Voices of Resistance: Diaries of Genocide (Comma Press, 2025), which she wrote in English and which is being translated into nine further languages. She has also published regular accounts from the genocide in Gaza in The New Statesman magazine, and written for theatre stages including the Barbican Centre in London and HOME Arts Centre in Manchester. Her words were even read to a crowd of 15,000 people by the actress Maxine Peake at a national solidarity march for Palestine. 

Sondos has achieved all of this without being able to leave Gaza, which has been under military siege since Israeli forces destroyed the Rafah Crossing in May last year. Since the start of the genocide, she has been internally displaced multiple times and has seen seen several relatives, including children, murdered by the Israeli Army.

Now, Sondos has received an unconditional offer from Lancaster University in England: an offer to join them for their Creative Writing MA programme and has also applied to the Creative Writing MA at Manchester University. Thanks to the amazing work of the Gaza Scholarship Initiative, the British government may very soon allow a small group of Gazan students to travel to the UK as part of a biometric deferral scheme similar to that created for Ukrainians. 

To support our dear friend and colleague Sondos in her dream to study in the UK, we are looking to help her raise the required course fees (£24,830), required living fees (£10,224) and visa/travel cost (£2,500). These prices may rise slightly depending on course specifics. 

Should anything beyond her control prevent Sondos Sabra from being able to attend university in the UK this year, any funds raised will be used to support her entry into next year's 2026 MA programme or a comparable programme at a different institution.

Thank you for your generous support for a true friend of ours and a brilliant writer.

This project successfully funded on 31st October 2025