Hanan Al Hroub

Career

Al Hroub specialises in supporting children traumatised by violence. She grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp where she was exposed to acts of violence, and her own children were traumatized by a shooting incident. She teaches Palestinian refugee children, and her slogan is "No to Violence". She uses a specialised approach she developed herself, which uses play that is aimed at resolving violence and tension. The method is detailed in her book, We Play and Learn. She has said that when she started teaching, "the violence that kids were seeing in the streets, they were carrying into the classroom," but that after a few months, their behavior and attitude improved dramatically.

Global Teacher Prize

In March 2016, Al Hroub was the second winner of the $1 million Global Teacher Prize. The Varkey Foundation's Global Education and Skills Forum presents the annual award, and Al Hroub's award was commemorated in a video message from Pope Francis. The winner in 2015 was American teacher Nancie Atwell.

Family

She has 5 children. Her twin daughters are newly qualified lawyers, another daughter is an accountant, one son is a chef, and the youngest, a boy, is training to be an architect.

Her husband, Omar, served 10 years in an Israeli prison after being convicted as an accomplice in a deadly 1980 bombing attack in Hebron in which six people died while walking home from Friday night Sabbath prayers, The Associated Press reported. Omar al-Hroub was a chemist who provided chemicals needed for making the bombs.