This TED Talk features civil engineer and entrepreneur Madge Masharari, recorded live at TED Women 2018.

For more than 10 years, I and 2 million people back home have been living in darkness, locked between two borders

that are nearly impossible to leave, literally,

in an area that spans 25 miles long and about 5 miles wide.

I am Palestinian, and I am from Gaza. I grew up there and I still live there.

In Gaza, we have a whole lot of nothing,

and I aim to create something from that nothing.

When a community is cut off from the world, all what we need to do is what?

It's to think outside of the box, way outside of the box.

That thinking led me to two projects to address two serious issues in my community,

the need for building materials and the need for electricity and energy.

Two essential ingredients of life.

Both are in lack of supply in Gaza.

First, I'm not here

just to talk about the occupation we have back home,

the siege, the wars, the bombs, the protests,

or the death toll.

I am here because I wanted to show that we can live through it all.

I am here because I wanted to make a change.

I am here to tell you that I am a statistic that cannot be ignored.

In 2014 war, thousands of houses were destroyed.

Those houses were made from sun, baked, stones and blocks.

...