Salah & Family ‍

Salah Ostaz is a volunteer photojournalist and computer engineer in Gaza who has somehow continued creating, studying, and caring for his family while living through relentless bombardment.

Salah lived in northern Gaza with his family of 12 and was completing the final year of his Computer Engineering degree. He invented a hearing-assistance device with the ability to recognize sign language, helping bridge communication between deaf or hard-of-hearing people and those who do not understand sign language. He was trying to build new technology without a safe home, a functioning university, reliable electricity, stable internet, proper equipment, or even the certainty that his family would survive the night.

But then Salah’s home was completely destroyed. His university was destroyed too. He lost everything he owned, as well as friends and family members he loved.

Still, he did not give up.

For more than two and a half years, Salah continued studying and taking his exams online whenever he could. He studied while displaced, through power cuts and unstable internet, often without a desk or a quiet place to work. He held on to his education while nearly every condition necessary to continue it was taken away.

During this time, Salah also worked as a volunteer photojournalist, documenting what was happening around him. His photographs help people outside Gaza see the lives behind the headlines: families searching for food, students trying to continue learning, and people doing everything possible to remain alive.

Today, Salah is the primary source of support for his family of 12.

Salah wants to earn his master’s degree and continue developing technology that can improve people’s lives. He wants the opportunity to build a stable career, support his family through his own work, and continue creating tools that make communication more accessible.