Migrant Odyssey: Gaza Voices

Host: Stephen Barden
Guests: Joe Friel, Lina Ayesh (YALA Labs), Ahmad Jafil (Waves to Home)
Date: December 8, 2025

Overview:

Theme:
This episode, “Gaza Voices,” centers on the importance of memory, storytelling, and resistance to erasure amid the attempted obliteration of Palestinian identity in Gaza. Through the lens of two organizations—YALA Labs and Waves to Home—the conversation explores how technology and storytelling can preserve, amplify, and connect the personal and collective experiences of Palestinians under siege. The episode delves into the origins, missions, and collaborations of these organizations, with a focus on how their work helps counter the distortion, colonization, and amputation of memory and identity.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

I. Erasure and the Power of Memory

• Introduction by Stephen Barden ([00:07]–[04:44])
  • Barden draws historical parallels (Carthage, the Holocaust, Gaza), highlighting that attempted erasure of people and their memories historically fails.
  • Quote:

    “In other words, it cannot be done...what the perpetrators can do if they're not checked, is to distort the present, to lay claim to the present and so claim their right to the history.” (A, [02:25]–[02:45])

  • Memory and storytelling are acts of resistance.

II. YALA Cooperative & YALA Labs: Tech for Social Impact

Origins and Mission ([04:44]–[11:19])

• Joe Friel (YALA):
  • YALA began seven years ago, as a worker-owned tech cooperative with founders in the UK, Gaza, and Germany, joined through pro bono work and partnerships with "Founders and Coders" and "Gaza Sky Geeks."
  • They focus on empowering talent, especially in Gaza, designing digital tools for charities and purpose-driven orgs, amplifying unheard voices for social impact.
  • Quote:

    “We honestly believe...having that kind of space where different cultures and backgrounds can connect and share experiences...makes us better placed to...solve...societal challenges.” (B, [05:23])

Gaza Sky Geeks’ Role ([08:36]–[12:45])

• Lina Ayesh (YALA):
  • Lia worked at Gaza Sky Geeks, which trained hundreds of Gazan tech talents and helped 300 find employment across Europe.
  • Gaza Sky Geeks serves as a tech education hub and talent pipeline. Its Gaza office has shifted to emergency support due to ongoing conflict, but West Bank operations continue.
  • Quote:

    “We’ve been able...to help 300 people get employment opportunities with different companies across Europe.” (C, [11:19])

III. YALA Labs: Building Products for Palestinians

Purpose and Vision ([13:07]–[16:30])

• YALA Labs was born from the need to serve Palestinian and diaspora communities directly—creating digital products by and for Palestinians, practicing flexibility for people in crisis.
• Projects hope to later serve disciplined (displaced) communities globally.
• Tools are intended to be ethical, affordable, and accessible, even for people with limited time and resources due to displacement.

IV. Waves to Home: Global Storytelling for Migrants

Origins and Goals ([16:30]–[20:35])

• Ahmad Jafil (Waves to Home):
  • Founded by Zoya, a two-time refugee (Palestinian-Ukrainian), after personal experience with liberation through storytelling.
  • All-volunteer, international team based in Zurich, with partners worldwide.
  • Mission: Collects and shares personal stories of displaced people, aiming to empower, raise awareness, and connect to resources (like employment) through their website and quarterly newsletter.
  • Quote:

    “We try to collect stories from across the world...so that more awareness can be spread. And we try to help people achieve what they might be looking for…” (D, [18:26])

Website Features ([19:44]–[20:35])

• Interactive world map to explore stories by country.
• Stories available in various media (written, photo, video).

V. Gaza Living Story: Mapping and Reclaiming Memory

Project Details ([21:03]–[33:49])

• Joe Friel & Lina Ayesh:

  • Gaza Living Story is a web app mapping memories to locations in Gaza—past, present, dreams for the future.
  • Anyone globally can access (gazalivingstory.org), but input is verified by Palestinian volunteers to prevent colonizing or false content.
  • Highlights the emotional impact of seeing one’s home disappear from maps/history, and the drive to ensure stories aren’t erased, but evolve.
  • Quote:

    “It’s not just an archive or preservation memory, but it’s very much a living, breathing thing...at a time when people are...saying, oh, it’s rubble, who wants to live there...you need to make sure that any discussion around Gaza is rooted in Palestinian voices.” (B, [23:49])

• Lina Ayesh:

  • Stresses the trauma of losing not only land but the public record of existence; the platform is a “safe space” to reclaim memory, grieve, and dream.
  • Quote:

    “As a human, who we are, we are a history. Right? So if...we don’t feel like that, we can claim who we are...that is a very huge missing part...from your own identity.” (C, [26:43])

• App Operations:

  • Verifiers (Palestinian, Arabic-speaking) check submissions for authenticity and respect.
  • Designed for accessibility (mobile, low data use), with plans for future offline access.

VI. Waves to Home: Storytelling in Practice

The Gaza Project ([34:03]–[38:39])

• Ahmad:
  • Recent focus: collecting firsthand stories from survivors and residents of Gaza under ongoing attacks.
  • Stories show resilience amid trauma—e.g., “School Tents” initiative for children’s education under bombing.
  • Content is available in video, photo, text on wavestohome.org and social media.
  • Quote:

    “Even in other cases, you had people still wanting to pursue their education...despite the harsh and brutal conditions...It was very beautiful, very inspiring.” (D, [34:39])

VII. Collaboration: Complementary Approaches

([38:39]–[42:18])

• Synergy:
  • YALA’s platform captures quick, mapped memories; Waves to Home provides deeper, long-form stories, sometimes in storytelling circles for healing.
  • Plans for cross-posting; encouraging contributors to develop both short and long stories; enhancing support and therapy for trauma.
  • Quote (Joe Friel):

    “That’s how we become bigger than the sum of our parts...those collaborations are going to be so important now...” (B, [41:56])

VIII. Lessons from Other Displaced Communities

([43:20]–[48:22])

• Lina:
  • Shared insights from conversations with indigenous North Americans, Kashmiris, and Mexicans on generational trauma, erasure, and reclaiming identity.
  • Language choice is critical; storytelling can bridge generations and geographies.
  • Quote:

    “When you build the story for people, it’s not just you’re communicating their stories, but you’re also encouraging others to talk about the unspoken stories that a lot of people, unless they read much they, they wouldn’t be able to know about.” (C, [48:01])

IX. Sustaining Memory & Ensuring Global Relevance

([49:04]–[63:46])

How do you make the story of Gaza and Palestinian experience heard and sustained?

Joe Friel (YALA):

• Technology should decentralize and multiply stories—replicable architecture, open access, and relentless documentation defeat erasure.
• Emphasis on collaboration.
• Quote:

  “I think what digital does allow us to do...is just keep stories, as many stories and keep talking...so many different places and with so many people...that it’s just impossible for it to be cut off.” (B, [50:09]–[52:31])

Ahmad Jafil (Waves to Home):

• Preserving and sharing stories digitally and orally with descendants is crucial.
• Highlighted enforced isolation and division even within Palestinian society, and the need to safeguard culture, customs, and language.
• Quote:

  “It’s also our responsibility to share the story ...with our children and grandchildren later on so that they know the truth and they’re not brainwashed by the global media today that is trying to erase and eradicate this culture.” (D, [54:13])

Lina Ayesh (YALA):

• Relevance comes from making explicit the global interconnectedness of histories and struggles: colonialism, resource theft, and present-day hardship are global phenomena.
• Connecting individual families across borders humanizes the experience and triggers empathy.
• Must actively counter the tendency to “turn away” by fostering direct relationships.
• Quote:

  “You can do something else. I can start connecting people together, making one family connected to another family in Palestine...They would by the connection experience what they are seeing in the daily basis. They would be a part of their life every day...that would make it completely different for you.” (C, [61:37])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Stephen Barden, on memory and erasure:

  “None of this memory wipe has worked. We still know and remember Hannibal and the Carthaginians. The story of the Holocaust grows more powerful in its retelling and that of Gaza and the Palestinians is probably the topic of discussion around the world...” ([00:07])

• Joe Friel, on digital empowerment:

  “We’re proud to be collectively owned by members from uk, Palestine, Italy, Germany, many people across the world.” ([05:23])

• Lina Ayesh, on losing a place and its memory:

  “It’s very depressing when you don’t see the places that belongs to you there in anywhere...not just on the physical level, but also on the emotional level...” ([24:28])

• Ahmad Jafil, on hope and resilience:

  “But on the opposite side, you still see strength, you still see hope...dreams that never shattered and never crumbled under the pressure.” ([34:39])

• Stephen Barden, on storytelling as reclamation:

  “Colonization, occupation, displacement, all those things specialize in amputation...the power...is that you are able to network...sew back those links, those stories and those histories.” ([42:48])

• Lina Ayesh, on countering indifference:

  “People need to understand that there’s no limits...if you think that you’re safe...that is not true. You can anytime be colonized...” ([61:13])

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro & framing of memory/erasure: [00:07]–[04:44]
• YALA origin and Gaza Sky Geeks: [04:44]–[12:45]
• YALA Labs shift to community focus: [13:07]–[16:30]
• Waves to Home overview: [16:30]–[20:35]
• Gaza Living Story details: [21:03]–[33:49]
• Waves to Home’s Gaza stories: [34:03]–[38:39]
• Discussion of collaboration: [38:39]–[42:18]
• Learning from other communities: [43:20]–[48:22]
• Strategies for sustaining relevance: [49:04]–[63:46]

Final Thoughts

This episode brings to the fore the collective, urgent work of preserving Palestinian (and wider migrant) memory and identity in defiance of ongoing attempts at erasure. Through technology, crowd-sourced storytelling, inter-organizational collaboration, and a focus on emotional connection and global relevance, YALA Labs and Waves to Home offer both practical and philosophical blueprints for fighting dispossession and historical amnesia anywhere. Their tools and stories are not just for Palestinians—but for all people resisting erasure worldwide.

Explore more:

• gazalivingstory.org (Personal, mapped memories; English & Arabic)
• wavestohome.org (Global long-form migrant stories)

“We are a history. Right?”
(Lina Ayesh, [26:43])