Lujain Alqattawi, a 13-year-old Palestinian living in Maryland, US, is a finalist in the Time magazine Kid of the Year competition.

With her Palestinian origin and bilingual skills, the eighth-grader invested her time teaching English to Palestinian girls aged 9 and 10 in Jordan during the early COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.

“With COVID we were just sitting at home and I felt like I wanted to help people or make an impact,” the magazine quoted Lujain as saying.

Kid of the Year finalist Lujain Alqattawi, 13, teaches English to kids in refugee camps https://t.co/TPKRYFtfEU

— TIME (@TIME) January 26, 2022

Empowering girls

The young girl was inspired by her father, a Palestinian refugee who emigrated from Jordan to the US, as well as her mother, who taught English as a second language for 20 years.

Lujain's parents set up the logistics with the school in Jordan, as she took care of teaching Palestinian refugees online.

"Every Friday for six months, Lujain would finish her week of remote school and get to work preparing 30-minute beginner’s English classes. Then every Saturday, she’d spend her mornings on Zoom, beaming both the lessons and her infectious personality 6,000 miles across the world to groups of schoolgirls in Jordan," the Times mentioned.

According to Lujain, her initiative aims “to empower girls to be more confident.”

Ongoing challenges

In terms of challenges, the girls did not own laptops and their internet connection would sometimes be interrupted. 

"Palestinian refugees in Jordan are more likely to live in poverty than the general population, and many lack access to the same rights as naturalized citizens," the magazine pointed out.

In addition, Palestinian girls in Jordan drop out of elementary school nearly twice as boys.

“I feel like girls are not given that much thought in general,” Lujain said.

"Girls are capable as much as boys and even more in some stuff,” she affirmed.

People in the US are privileged

During her journey, the 13-year-old realized that people outside her world live a different life,” her mother says, and that some people are privileged in the US, which helped her grow.

In the future, Lujain plans to involve other Arabic-speaking friends on board in her initiative.

She aims to help other students, while also continuing her progress with the first class she taught.

In addition, the young girl "applied for grants to fund laptops for the girls to ease remote learning, and she plans to run in-person classes when her family next visits Jordan," the Times highlighted.

While helping Palestinian refugees in Jordan, she also seeks to help refugees in the US emotionally adapt to their new environment.