Palestinian Donia Qesis Donia Qesis, 14, from Ramallah, goes to school like any other Palestinian girl her age. The latter part of her day however is spent in something quite interesting - Donia works in a auto-mechanic’s shop and fixes cars as a hobby.
Donia’s fascination for automotive mechanics started when she began watching her father fix his own car in his workshop. Her curiosity led her to try it herself, and she soon started to help her father.
The West Bank resident now works in a shop in the Betunia industrial area near Ramallah, and does not even take any money as she \"fixes cars as a passion\".
Donia told Arabstoday that her fascination first seemed strange and was frowned upon, but her \"strong will and love for the profession\" made her decide not to care about what society thought of her hobby.
\"My mother and father also encouraged me all the way, and that helped me a lot,\" she said
\"It made me creative in this field...I know all the news in the automobile world and can dismantle a car and put it back together when something needs to be fixed,\" said the teenager.
Like every other job, Donia has to face daily difficulties in her work.
\"The first is improper comments from people when they see what I do. It is also a difficult job, being a girl, but despite all of this, I enjoy my work which I practice as a hobby without taking any wages...I don\'t work in a mechanic\'s shop for the money,\" she explained.
Donia also plays badminton and adores horse riding.
The student said she balanced her hobby with work during the summer holidays, in the absence of entertainment facilities or summer camps that other students get involved in during their holidays.
At the end of her talk with Arabstoday, Donia said she would continue her education and serve her people although she wouldn’t work on cars anymore.
\"It\'s a talent, and a love for knowledge that will help me when I own a car in the future. I wouldn’t need a mechanic to fix my car then!” she said.
\"Since I was a child, I would think on how a certain car was made and what the engineers were thinking when they made it. How did it start? I had many questions spinning around my head. Now, I can answer some of them,” she smiled.