Podcast Transcript June 19th, 2026— (Guest Interview) Hope can rise: two sisters in Gaza turning rubble into building blocks | Earth Prize 2026

Episode Description:

Tala and Farah Mousa received thousands of messages after they won the Earth Prize. “You gave us hope we had completely lost,” people wrote. “You showed us we can be seen.” They were sheltering in a tent when those messages came in.

This episode is about what it takes to build something: a real, physical method for turning rubble into building blocks, while living inside the rubble. Arielle speaks to the teenaged sisters from Gaza about the idea that came from a textbook the morning after their home was bombed, the competition that brought their work to the world, and what they want for their community, their generation, and the ones who come after them.

Connect with Build Hope Palestine:

Follow Build Hope Palestine on Instagram: @build.hope

The Earth Prize website: theearthprize.org

Further reading:

The Optimist Daily articles on Earth Prize 2026 regional winners Part I and Part II

Learn about the Earth Prize 2026 global winner

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Theme and all original music by Marvin Lanes

Transcript:

Tala:

Ones who can’t speak. I want to be their voice. I want to work for human rights and human dignity.

Arielle (Voice Over):

61 million tons of rubble. That number is so large, so enormous, it stops feeling like a number at all. It’s 169 kilograms of broken buildings for every square meter of the Gaza Strip. At the time of this recording, more than 80% of all structures there have been damaged or destroyed. The UN puts the reconstruction bill at around $70 billion, and says rebuilding could take decades.

Rubble is what remains when a home is bombed. It is the material of loss. Welcome to The Optimist Daily’s Weekly Roundup. It’s Arielle here, back with another guest interview with two very special, resilient teens, who I am sure are going to inspire you just as much as they have inspired me.

Tala:

Hi, I’m Tala. I’m Palestinian girl from Gaza.

Farah:

And I’m Farah. I’m also a Palestinian girl from Gaza.

Arielle (Voice Over):

Tala and Farah Mousa were 16 and 14 years old respectively when their home was bombed. Before the devastation hit, their family evacuated in a rush. Tala grabbed a bag and tried to fill it with whatever was in front of her. The last thing she threw in was her technology textbook.

The day after the bombing, still shocked and devastated by the destruction of her home, Tala flipped open the book. There was a lesson about making blocks from mountain stone. She looked at the rubble all around her, the physical jagged fragments of broken lives, communities, and homes, and thought, “What if you didn’t clear it away? What if this rubble was part of the answer?”

Today, Tala is 17 and Farah is 15. Together they built Build Hope Palestine, a method for turning rubble into reusable construction blocks. 80% recycled rubble, mixed with clay and ash and glass powder. Strong enough for partitions, pavement, shelters, tent foundations— designed so anyone who learns how to do it can teach it to someone else. The Earth Prize is the world’s largest environmental competition for teenagers. 15,000 entrants from 160 countries. One winner per region. This year, the Middle East winner was Build Hope Palestine, and the two sisters who dreamed it up while sheltering in a tent in Gaza.

They are the first Palestinian team to have won it. I had the privilege of speaking to them about their accomplishments, what keeps them motivated these days, and about who they are as people. They were still in their tent in the middle Gaza region while on the call with me, so you may hear some noise in the background here and there.

You’ll hear Tala’s voice first, followed by her sister, Farah.

Arielle:

Can you tell us about who you both were before you started this Build Hope mission?

Tala:

We were, like, just two simple sisters from Gaza. We love studying, we love, uh, volunteering and engaging and participating in community activities. And somehow we had the vision that we will make something in the future, especially for the youth in Gaza.

I always dreamed to, to study international law and maybe to be an ambassador for Palestine one day. ‘Cause I always want to be the voice of children and women here in Gaza, the one who can’t speak. I want to be their voice. I want to work for human rights and human dignity.

Farah:

Uh, I want to study translation and language because I want to share our story in different, uh, lang- language, and yeah.

Arielle (Voice Over):

Pretty big and noble aspirations, right? I asked them where these dreams came from for them.

Tala:

It all about our childhood. Like, our childhood wasn’t something really normal. It wasn’t like the normal that any child in the world have, ’cause we faced multiple wars, not the only one which was the last one.

Every one of them affect us, like affect our vision, affect our minds, affect the way how we think and how we want to be in the future. So it was the biggest motivator for us. I want maybe to work in international law ’cause I want to defend my people. Farah want to share our story. So it’s all, it’s all about our generation.

It’s all about our city. It’s all about Gaza.

Arielle (Voice Over):

And what is it that they are fighting for? What do they want for their generation and for the generations of children that come after them?

Tala:

Just live in peace. They don’t need something complicated. They just want to live a normal life like anyone or any children can live in the world.

They want to live in peace, go to school, and have a, a balanced, uh, food maybe. We are talking about basic human needs. We’re not talking about something complex.

Arielle (Voice Over):

Tala and Farah already had huge ambitions for their futures and for the futures of their peers. But the details of Build Hope hadn’t been solidified yet.

I asked them when the idea of Build Hope Palestine really came to life.

Arielle:

Can you take me back to the moment where the idea for Build Hope clicked for you?

Tala:

Maybe you are now waiting for a happy moment, but the reality is away from that. When our home was bombed, it was a day full of cries and tears. It was really sadness everywhere.

But we don’t have wardrobes because we live in a tent, and in the tent there is no space. We only have a bag. And that bag, I hold it from the last time we were in our home before it was bombed. So I put anything I saw in it. The final thing, it was my technology book It was the day after our home was bombed.

I want to, to do something that made me attached somehow to my home, satisfied my belonging feeling, satisfied my, my, my inner voice here who want to, to do anything to be attached to, to her, to her home. So when I read the book, there was a lesson about how we make blocks in usual, like how they, uh, make stones and blocks from the mountains.

There is, uh, how to make stones, and there is the news of yesterday that our home was bombed literally. So when everything was in one mixture, the idea literally clicked. What if we replaced the mountain stone with rubble? What if we make a reconstruction? What, what if and what if? And anything, uh, the first one who I shared my ideas with is Farah.

So I told her, and she loved the idea. She loved it, and she supported me. We just have a deep discussion after that, and then we go straight to our mom, and we told her, because she is an industrial engineer, so she have an idea about how they do these things.

Arielle (Voice Over):

What Tala and Farah built was designed to run without them.

Anyone who learns the method can teach it to someone else, so the knowledge keeps moving no matter what. So how are the blocks made anyway? We asked Farah to explain the process.

Farah:

Okay. First, we collect rubble. We collect the safe rubble and crush it, mix it with local binders such as clay, ash, and, uh, glass powder, and we mix it, uh, together with, um, water, and we put it in the model for seven, seven days?

Yeah.

Tala:

Yeah. Two days in the model and five without it.

Farah:

Yeah. Uh-

Tala: And it will be ready for use, for non-load bearing use.

Farah:

For non, non-load bearing. Yeah. And non-load bearing is like, it’s, um, for partitions, pavement, for temporary shelters, for, um, what else? Settlement?

Tala:

Yeah, for settling the, the- Tent … tent.

Arielle (Voice Over):

Solutions that are self-sustaining, that don’t need the architect of the original solution to keep the positive impact going, are some of the best kinds of solutions out there It’s so impressive that Tala and Farah were able to come up with such a practical and immediate way to resolve the immense destruction facing them and their community.

Tala and Farah made it incredibly clear how they feel about their community, and how their love for and faith in those around them really fuel how they approach the world.

Tala:

People around us have passions, talent, and power. They are really creative. They are just waiting for the real chance. They are just waiting to be heard and to be seen from the world.