**Date: September 10, 2017**
The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP) held its second recreational day for (50) women who are victims and survivors of violence from the five governorates of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, September 7, 2017, at the Blue Beach resort. This activity was part of the “Protection and Empowerment of Women in the Gaza Strip” project, funded by the United Nations Humanitarian Fund projects, with generous support from Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Professor Wafaa Helles, the project coordinator, indicated that this is the second recreational activity implemented by the Center within the project. The total number of women participating in the two days reached (100) victims and survivors of violence. She noted that these women have been provided with legal, psychological, and social support, in addition to collaboration with partner organizations providing other services, such as health services. Thus, the Center has achieved the main goal it seeks to achieve through the implementation of the activity, which is to improve the access of women and girls who are victims and survivors of violence in the Gaza Strip to comprehensive protection services based on human rights standards. She explained that the main purpose of implementing this activity is to provide psychological and social support to the affected women and girls through the allocation of a complete psychological and social support program to alleviate their distress.
She emphasized that the project’s psychological and social specialists, in addition to the specialists in the “Hayat” project for the protection and empowerment of women and families, have prepared a complete program to ensure the success of this activity. This was done through a number of diverse activities, which included dividing the women into four groups and implementing several activities with each group, the most important of which was an introductory session between members of each group to break the ice and identify the problems facing the women, in order to benefit from each other’s experiences, in addition to implementing a psychodrama activity to alleviate the severity of their suffering.
It is noted that symbolic gifts were presented to a number of women at the end of the day. The women expressed their overwhelming joy and great satisfaction towards the Center that implemented this activity for them, demanding the implementation of more recreational activities for them.
