Aljana - Center for Cultural and Social Development

GOALS
To support empowerment and consciousness-raising activities for women and youth in the Arab village of Nahef.

BACKGROUND
The village of Nahaf in the central Galilee is home to 9,500 Muslims. The village is one of the most conservative in the region and the Islamic Brotherhood movement is very active there. Approximately 80% of the women in the village are homemakers and only 3% have graduated from university. Aljana was founded in 2001 by two women graduates who live in the village to promote the status of women and youth in the village. The organization believes that the status of women has to be promoted by men and women jointly and therefore it includes men in its work, most of them volunteers.

STRATEGIES

Running empowerment courses and giving consciousness-raising lectures.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Restoring, with the help of volunteers, an old oil press in the heart of the village with the goal of turning it into the center for the organization's activities;
• Consciousness-raising and empowerment courses;
• Lectures to schoolchildren on topics such as sex education, and the battle against smoking and drugs; and
• An empowerment and leadership development program for schoolgirls launched with the Israel Women's Network.