The Centre concludes a training course for the student leadership team

The Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution concluded a training course in the Gaza Strip entitled "Preparing the student leadership team". Taking part in the course, which continued for six days at 30 training hours, were 30 female students from the leaderships of the student frameworks at the Gaza Strip's universities. This course came within the Centre's concern with working for national reconciliation through participation in decision-making positions, and within the project "Women for civil peace", with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). During the course the participants learned about the concept of civil peace, advocacy and the methods of influencing others, and also learned the art of persuasion and negotiation and how to build and manage coalitions. The trainers also addressed the importance of the media and the extent of the Palestinian media's ability to influence decision-makers, in addition to explaining the concept of advocacy and pressure. It should be noted here that the participants worked in groups to practise building plans for advocacy and mobilisation campaigns. The participants expressed their interest in this subject, with the aim of building bridges of communication between themselves and the Palestinian public from the various parties in order to strengthen a culture of civil peace and tolerance. The trainers relied on a method of participatory learning using teaching aids, working groups and brainstorming to clarify the ideas for the participants. It should be noted here that the project's aim is to enable women to take part in senior decision-making positions in order to strengthen a culture of civil peace and tolerance, leading to national reconciliation, which is a popular demand.