/ The women’s and children’s center in Nablus
Nablus and the villages and refugee camps nearby have been isolated for the most part since the beginning of the second Intifada. The militarization of the conflict means that there is less safety and less legal rights, so that women are being pushed out of public life more and more. The dangers are real, but they are often used as reasons to limit women’s freedom of action. The women’s and children’s center in Nablus is one of the few places where women can talk about important social questions and can get training and mental and social support. At the center, women and children can find the strength to make their situation better and influence their family and community.
Empowerment groups
The women’s and children’s center in Nablus starts and helps empowerment groups in the city and in the villages and refugee camps nearby. These groups have had great success in their communities. In workshops, women learn how to start social and political organisations, how to work as a group and later they often to plan their own social and political activities. For example, during the local elections in 2004-2005, many empowerment groups worked very successfully so that women had more influence in community policy making.
Mental and social support
In the center, mental health and social workers help women, children and families who have been hurt by political violence or violence in the family. They work with them singly, in a group or as a family. There is a telephone service to help women and men in emergencies. For many women, this telephone service is the first and only way for them to ask questions and to speak about difficult situations.
Discussion groups and Internet café
In workshops, young men and women talk with one another about discrimination and democracy and also about women’s and human rights. They also talk about ideas for fair relationships between women and men and in groups they think about how things could be made better in the future. For young women especially, it is more and more difficult to get access to education and to normal internet cafés. For this reason, the center’s internet café is a place for girls and young women to email, reach the world through the Internet and look for information for their studies.
Children’s library
The children’s library was the center’s first project and is still today its main activity. Children come to read, play, paint, play music and practice on the computer. They take part in activities or learn in extra schoolwork courses.
