Azag and the children

By Rita Amabili-Rivet

Yahya sees the situation of the people of Gaza. He is old enough to have memories of what life was like here in 2009, which he learnt from his mother, his uncle and several neighbours who all died that same year.
With his cousin Isra, they imagine uniting the children of the area to do something that will improve their daily lives. So, they create a group of young people like themselves who congregate in the courtyard at the back of a ruined, abandoned house.
Using the debris of wood, stones and other fragments of the city left lying there, they make themselves a roofless shelter, where together, having a lot of fun, they create a new friend whom they name AZAG.
With him, they reinvent their own reality.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In her practice, Rita Amabili has a penchant for human rights and children’s rights. Her experience as a nurse, as an accompanying person at the end of life, as a humanist in the social sciences and as a master in theology, gave him an active practice with the human and strengthened his feminism as an author promoting the inclusion of men and women as equal persons although different. Her work as a writer and her group animation classes have enabled her to develop skills as a speaker and facilitator and thus to make the knowledge acquired over more than twenty years alive and often interactive.
As a novelist, human rights, children’s rights and the history of immigration. Her experience as a nurse, as an end-of-life accompanist, as a humanist and as an active human practitioner, reinforces her feminism, which is the inclusion of men and women. As a writer, her group animation classes have directed her as a speaker and facilitator for over twenty years.
Nurse by training, master in theology. Her work revolves around human rights, immigration, inclusion as a feminist. She has been involved in theatre, poetry, novels and has collaborated with several media, dealing with subjects related to values and the meaning of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Guido Amabili
• Release date: May 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9782981760579

Book preview

C:\Users\Rita Amabili\Desktop\GAZA\AZAG LIVRES\Azag - Anglais.JPG

AZAG AND THE CHILDREN

To all the children who suffer unjustly from adult conflicts ,

for Florence, Judith and Leane

and Elena Romero for her help.

The author thanks

the Palestinian General Delegation in Canada

and especially Dr. Fadi Elhusseini.

FROM THE SAME AUTHOR:

Un bourgeon deviendra famille, Office de la famille de Montréal, 1997

Voyage sur Angélica, Éditions de la Paix, 1999

La force de l’amour, Éditions Guido Amabili, 1999

Les anges d’Angélica autour de mon pays, Éditions Parenthèses, 2001

Guido, le roman d’un immigrant, Éditions Hurtubise HMH, 2004

Un fil poétique, Tout comme une prière, Tome 1, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2007

Un fil poétique, Tout comme une prière, Tome 2, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2007

Un fil poétique, Elles, assurément !, Tome 3, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2007

Un fil poétique, Et puisque j’aime les enfants, Tome 4, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2007

Un fil poétique, Poésies diverses, Tome 5, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2007

Un fil poétique, Notre Père, Tome 6, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2007

Saffia, femme de Smyrne, Novalis, 2007

La fiction est-elle un outil pour transmettre l’Évangile ? Éditions Universitaires Européennes, 2012

Marguerite prophète, Éditions Carte Blanche, 2014

Translations:

In mio figlio vivrai per sempre, romanzo storico, Seconda Edizione, Librati Editrice, 2012

In mio figlio vivrai per sempre, romanzo storico, Edarc Edizioni, 2010

Guido, The story of an immigrant, In my son you will live forever, historical novel Éditions

Guido Amabili, 2010

La lingère d’Acquaviva, romanzo storico, Effata Editrice 2018,

Digital books:

Les Pierres parleront de toi, chronique humaine d’une violence inhumaine, roman, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2016

Un monde poétique en solidarité, poésies, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2016

Suzanna, novella, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2016

Suzanne, nouvelle, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2016

Saffia femme de Smyrne, roman historique, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2016

Voyage sur Angélica, roman jeunesse,  Éditions Guido Amabili, 2016

Les anges d’Angélica autour de mon pays, roman jeunesse, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2016

Azag et les enfants, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2017.

Azag e i bambini, roman jeunesse, Éditions Guido Amabili, 2017.

Rita Amabili-Rivet

AZAG AND THE CHILDREN

Illustrations Eve Amabili-Rivet

C:\Users\Rita Amabili\Desktop\GAZA\AZAG LIVRES\EVA.JPG

Translated from French by Nigel Garka-Pope

C:\Users\Rita Amabili\Pictures\Nigel et Fatma juillet 2017-1.JPG

Rereading by Giacomina D’Alesio

Giacomina(Jacqueline) D’Alesio B.Ed., B.A. Linguistcs

Giacomina is a passionate language teacher with a background in translation, editing, and curriculum development. She has spent 20 years working as a resource teacher, literacy specialist, and curriculum advisor.  Giacomina has also been a key contributor to youth leadership programs in schools, with a special focus on conflict resolution, and community programs, both local and international. 

Original title AZAG et les enfants

Éditions Guido Amabili

www.ritaamabili.com

Project directed by Rita Amabili

All rights of translation, reproduction and adaptation reserved

Rita Amabili, 2017

SUMMARY

Yahya lives with his father Ibrahim and the sister of his father Ghaida, her husband Saber and their two children. Yahya and his cousins; Isra  10 years old and Ezat aged 9, in addition to the two twins Shada and Sayed, aged 8, form a small band of adventurers who are loyal to each other, playing in the rubble left by incessant bombardment. (There were a total of 1,000 Palestinian toddlers killed in Gaza during the Israeli attacks in 2009 and 2014), all in search of respite from the suffocating Occupation .

One day, these friends come across a secret haunt, a sort of flowerless garden where the ground is strewn with garbage of all kinds...  like so many memories of the Gaza bombings. The children clean it to put a little order into the place. Yahya, a creative child, finds a tank that the little ones put in the centre of a concrete base. Then by adding a sheet of metal to the top of the tank and the screen from an old abandoned television on top of that as a head, they form the shape of a robot. And so ... the robot rises, taller than them, strong, sturdy, splendid and sympathetic, with his big hat of golden straw and his blue shawl.

The robot will be named Azag, which is Gaza spelt in reverse. " ‘…That’s the reverse of pain...’  suggests dreamy Yahya ".   Ibrahim and Saber will give voice to the Azag robot through a long retractable hose that joins its head.   When Saber places his lips and breathes, the sound seems to come out of the television screen-face, under the mouth ...  , for the children, without realizing it, this is the first magical moment of their young lives. Saber says, What Azag represents is everything that allows us to overcome the pain and difficulty of life here. Azag is that part of our heart which goes beyond the limits imposed on us by the Occupation ...

Later, encouraged by Azag and guided by the adults, the boys and girls will write letters, addressed to all the children of the world by means of the internet, in order to reveal to them the daily life of children in Gaza. How is your country? Mine is torn apart and I can do nothing to prevent this Occupation. Do you know what an Occupation is? And as a sign of solidarity, Yahya and his compatriots who represent all the little tots in Gaza, receive answers from