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CARE Palestine (West Bank/Gaza) Established Women Leadership Councils in Palestinian refugee camps to support women's right to participate in public life, leadership and decision making
09 March 2020

Ramallah - Nisaa FM - As part of the Gender Equality Project in the Occupied Palestinian Territories “KAYANI”, CARE Palestine West Bank/ Gaza facilitated the establishment of Women Leadership Councils (WLCs) in four refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, with the objective to support Palestinian refugee women and girls’ activism and meaningful participation in key decision-making processes inside their refugee camps. The WLCs will increase the voices of Palestinian refugee women and girls as participants in policy planning and provide support to women in their communities. This involves bringing the needs of Palestinian refugee women forward and discussing possible solutions and ways of improvement and having an active role in actualizing the solutions. 

The Women Leadership Councils will help women advocate the needs of Palestinian refugee women in Shufat and Askar camps in the West Bank, and in Shate’ and Bureij camps in Gaza.

According to CARE’s 'Country Director in an interview with Radio Nisaa FM “those Councils will help women community leaders  be an enabler for greater advocacy by Palestinian refugee women on their own needs, challenges and aspirations”.

Within the activities of the Women Leadership Councils, twenty women leaders were  trained as trainers in the four refugee camps. The training  included leadership skills, negotiations, lobbying and advocacy, communication, design of local initiatives, and gender transformative approach. The trained women will then train one hundred women in the same refugee camps on the same topics. Following both trainings, and in consultation with all trainees, The Women Leadership Councils will come up with local initiatives to increase women participation and raise their voices to influence the decision-making process. Some of the initiatives already in discussion is around Electronic Violence, Violence in General including Early Marriage.