EMPOWERS in Palestine: The Local Echoing Internationally

Photo by Morton Hvaal, 2005

The EMPOWERS project in Meithaloun, the West Bank ©CARE/Morton Hvaal

With the support of EMPOWERS Project in Palestine, a training workshop on domestic water quality and conservation and repair of water pipes was recently held in QabatyaMunicipality.

In this workshop, 35 female participants from woman associations in the towns of Qabatya and Jalboun received necessary training and a chance to unfold their personal experiences and have them discussed with the other participants.

EMPOWERS team concluded this workshop with a field activity in which participants from Qabatya visited Jalboun to exchange experience, especially with the existence of a woman center in Jalboun whose long years of associational work can benefit the newly established woman association in Qabatya.

Relatedly, the Qabatya Woman Association recently received Ms. Monica Press, the regional program advisor in the Middle East and Europe Regional Management Unit (MERMU). The association director, Ms. Fadwa Abu-Zeid, explained how this entity was a fruit of cooperation between EMPOWERS Palestine, QabatyaMunicipality and local community women. She also reviewed the association's role in training, raising awareness and empowering the Qabatya women as to become more involved in the local-level decision making process.

At the end of the visit, MERMU's officer said that this meeting gave her a great example of how a sector (water) can provide a powerful route to empowering women and changing the municipality relations.

Interest in the progress made in EMPOWERS country programmes is not only of a regional scope, but it started to win an international acclaim. See for example how CARE International sees EMPOWERS intervention in the life of a Palestinian housewife, Mona Abou-Rob, as a "thriller." Read the whole 'epic' on http://www.careinternational.org.uk/?lid=2615 .