Assist women in addressing the spectrum of issues that prevent them from overcoming the stigma of violence.

Why we care: Due to patriarchal beliefs, women in Palestine are often blamed and ostracized when they survive family violence.

How we’re solving this: Building supportive communities for women survivors of violence and providing counseling and job skills training to reestablish women standing in society.

Not only do women survivors of violence deal with trauma and loss of dignity in family, they also face discrimination, humiliation, and isolation from their community. Patriarchal attitudes regard women as weak and there is a pervasive belief that a woman must have done something wrong if she experienced violence.

Psycho-Social Counseling Center for Women (PSCCW) addresses the spectrum of issues that prevent women from overcoming stigma of violence. PSCCW will create job opportunities, provide vocational training, offer psychological therapy, and organize community sensitization activities to support 30 women survivors of violence and reduce social stigma that they face. Women from the West Bank, Bethlehem, and Hebron who do not have a source of income or are in family protection programs will benefit from trainings.

PSCCW has developed strong partnerships with diverse civil society organizations that specialize in providing job skills training, job placement, and direct services for survivors of violence. Each woman participant will develop an employment plan to assess her current skills and the skills needed to get the job she desires. Then she will receive quality educational and support services tailored to her needs.

PSCCW and its partners will also build relationships with business owners to ensure that women gain safe and stable employment after completing their job skills trainings. With the help of the media, PSCCW will run TV awareness campaigns to garner the support of communities. Positive stories showing how survivors of violence have contributed to their community in productive ways will help to reduce negative stigmas. Most importantly, PSCCW hopes to transform minds and attitudes: community members who once thought that women who experienced violence were weak will now see examples of women who are strong and valuable contributors to community life.