Imagine you can fly: virtual reality glasses to heal the trauma of children in Gaza

RiyadhKariman Mashharawi is an architectural engineer from Gaza who managed to escape after the first 51 days of the genocide. Now, from Saudi Arabia, she has created Belifye [of Believe you can flyImagine You Can Fly, a start-up developing therapeutic virtual reality tools for children in the Franja region. Their experience is documented in the charity book. "A cry for the children of Gaza" (Ara Llibres), coordinated by Txell Feixas and Cristina Mas.

When the Israeli army invaded northern Gaza in October 2023 and reached our house, we saw death all around us. After spending a few days trapped within those four walls amidst the bombing, my father decided we had to leave. We grabbed white flags and started walking. It was harrowing. We spent days without water, food, or electricity. We lost family, friends, and our home; two of my aunts died of hunger, and we couldn't do anything because we were far away from them.

Almost two months later, we managed to cross the border into Egypt thanks to my sister Majd's contacts in the United States. She is known worldwide because, as an engineer like me, she created a prototype of very affordable solar power boxes, designed to provide electricity to families who couldn't afford generators. My sister is one of the few female engineers who studied in the Gaza Strip. Afterwards, we both traveled for training and always returned home to implement and share the knowledge we gained with our families. In fact, Majd also designed a successful formula that transforms rubble into building materials.

Finally, my whole family was able to leave Egypt and go to the United States, but I was denied a US visa without any explanation. My boyfriend hasn't even been able to get permission to leave Gaza, where he continues to survive. I've been living alone in Riyadh for a year and a half. It's not easy.

We are all suffering: my brothers and sisters, and myself, as I write these words. I decided to start therapy, thinking that at least one of us had to heal in order to help others. I believe in therapy, and I already did when I lived in the Gaza Strip, but in this new phase it didn't work for me because the psychologist couldn't bear to hear the details I told her about death and would burst into tears. That's why I thought it would be helpful to create virtual reality solutions.

Escape to heal

Before the war, I had worked as an engineer with companies in the United Arab Emirates, designing virtual environments. I had done this for video games, art galleries, and entertainment. So when we were able to flee Gaza, I started creating experiences that would help me escape reality and heal. And it was my sister Majd who said, "Well, let's make it available to everyone."

Then we started working with therapists in the Gaza Strip, because creating environments that aid recovery isn't just an artistic endeavor. We also needed funding, so we thought about creating environments to treat post-traumatic stress, phobias, or anxiety for a general audience. For example, we launched a program that could help someone overcome public speaking shyness or a fear of flying. We are already offering this product to clinics and mental health professionals in the United States. And the resulting funds will allow us to develop our priority project, which aims to address the trauma of children who have survived wars in Gaza and around the world.

The environments we are working on to help heal children in the Gaza Strip aim to create relaxing situations. It has been shown that three minutes a day immersed in this state of deep relaxation can have a beneficial therapeutic effect. Therefore, we place people in natural settings, in a forest in the rain or in the mountains. In Gaza, everything is in rubble, burned: people need to see something other than destroyed buildings, amidst blood and bombings. It's a way to allow the mind to escape and find a moment of peace. We also work with sound: the headphones cancel out any noise and, at the same time, can play sounds or music that completely isolate people from their surroundings.

Artificial intelligence also comes into play in our project, allowing us to monitor each patient's progress. We can learn how they respond to stress so that the glasses can capture eye movements, breathing rate, or whether they are trembling. This data, analyzed with the therapists, will allow us to improve the environments we expose the children to.

Right now, we're already doing tests in Gaza, where we have virtual reality glasses. My boyfriend has downloaded the created environments, and we have a place where the children can use them. This is all a pilot test because right now it's impossible to go any further: we can't bring more equipment into Gaza, there are no safe spaces for the therapies, and we don't have enough electricity (we can only charge the devices once a day, and the battery lasts approximately three hours). But the most important thing is that as soon as the war ends, we'll have all the technology ready.