Palestine

Preventing violence against women in Occupied Palestinian Territories through resilient support communities:

Danner and our Palestinian partner organization Rural Women’s Development Society (RWDS) share a strong vision to reduce violence against women. This is in line with UN SDG 5, target 5.2 to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres.

This partnership project focuses on both prevention and protection initiatives to counter violence against women. In terms of prevention the project addreses one of the root causes to violence; norms on and attitudes to violence and gender equality.

We engage men, women and youth in two selected governorates, Bethlehem and Hebron, through a variety of activities designed to break the taboo on violence. The aim is to change attitudes on gender and violence, and provide citizens in both governorates with skills to reduce violence in the family.

In terms of protecting female survivors of domestic violence, we aim at strengthening the resilience of shelter staff and social workers in direct contact with those women and girls. Working with women and children exposed to violence can cause compassion fatigue. We therefore support teambuilding and self care among staff with the aim to professionalize and assure the sustainability of the strategic services benefitting women exposed to violence.

The project is funded by CISU [www.cisu.dk]