"I lost my leg… but I didn't lose my dream."
Mena Ashour, 13, from Deir al-Balah, was injured in a sudden airstrike that targeted a house near the tent where she and her family had taken shelter in Al-Mashaala. In a single moment, her life split into before and after, when her injury led to the amputation of her leg.
"I was playing next to the tent… trying to have a normal moment, before everything changed."
Since that day, movement has not been the same. Simple things became harder, and running — once natural — became impossible.
Before the injury, Mena used to draw every day. She spent long hours with paper and colors. Drawing was part of her daily life. After the injury, she stepped away from it for a while, struggling to accept what had happened and the sudden change in her life.
But she came back.
She returned to drawing — not just to continue, but to hold on to what is still hers. Today, she draws to resist, to say that what is taken does not end the story.
Mena is not trying to go back to who she was…
she is trying to keep going.
