Starting out

The first week in Palestine was extremely busy for the ICS volunteers, settling into our accommodation, learning about the country, and starting our volunteering work at various NGOs in the area.  We are Catherine and Anna, and we are going to be based within the external affairs office of a Palestinian women's NGO for the next ten weeks. During our placement we will aim to contribute to contribute to the creation of a just, democratic Palestinian society based on gender equality and social justice.  Our organisation aims to achieve this through service provision, awareness raising, capacity building and international advocacy.  

As part of our induction, we read publications and discussed our work with our manager, which affirmed for us the need for women's rights NGOs here.  Women in Palestine are not only living with the restrictions and hardships of living under occupation, but also with the patriarchy which is ingrained in culture.  Gender based violence and discrimination is reinforced and normalised, and there is a significant lack of service provision - for manifold reasons - from the government and a lack of awareness about women’s rights.  

In addition to this, work in education and awareness raising helps to instigate a change in attitude towards women’s rights; thus reversing a historical trend towards discrimination. Through building the capacity of other grassroots organisations concerned with women’s rights, women's charities help to give women all over Palestine a voice, with the goal of achieving gender equality throughout the country.  

Within the external affairs office, we will be proof-reading and editing documents, and assisting grassroots organisations with funding and report writing.  With regards to capacity building, we will be running English classes in the offices in Hebron and Ramallah, in order to develop the English language skills of some of employees.  We will be writing a blog regularly to share our experiences of Palestine and working here, so please keep checking back!