The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP) concluded today the second phase of the “Women Forward Forum” project, funded by the German Heinrich Böll Foundation, which aims to support divorced women, especially young women, and reintegrate them into the local community.

Dr. Tariq Al-Dirawi, a member of the Center’s Board of Directors, welcomed the directors and representatives of women’s and community organizations in the Gaza Strip. He explained that the second phase of the project came after the success of the first phase, which began with the formation of the forum and its announcement. Its activities consisted of establishing the “Women Forward Forum” for divorced women, through the enrollment of (30) divorced women. The activities of the second phase, the forum’s development stage, have been completed. He thanked the women’s and community organizations that cooperated with the Center and provided assistance to serve divorced women. He also thanked the trainers and lawyers who implemented the workshops for the project in its various stages.

Tahani Qassem, the project coordinator at the Center, presented an overview of the project’s goals and the activities of the second phase, which produced several results, including educating (170) divorced women about women’s family rights through legal support topics, assisting divorced women and standing by them to solve their problems through psychological support sessions, paying university tuition fees for (15) divorced women to complete their university studies, a number of divorced women benefited through funds collected by donors, the Counseling Unit at the Center received a number of women who attended workshops to demand solutions to outstanding legal problems before the courts and the Center is following up on them, the trainers contributed to creating a sense of confidence among divorced women, opening a network of cooperation between the target group of women affiliated with the forum and the institution they frequent, publishing issues and problems of divorced women through radio programs that discussed the problems of divorced women in Sharia courts and Palestinian society, assisting (50) divorced women in collecting outstanding alimony funds in the Ministry of Finance in Ramallah through coordination with the High Judicial Council in Ramallah, in addition to helping them through in-kind assistance provided to them through cooperation with community and women’s organizations.

For her part, Raeda Abu Al-Ouf, a member of the Board of Directors of the Al-Najda Al-Ijtima’iya Association in Beit Lahia, said that what The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP) did was like sounding the alarm for law and democracy in dealing with a marginalized segment that institutions do not deal with directly to address their issues.