The project to combat violence against women holds a recreational trip for a number of abused women in Gaza

Gaza, Publication and Information Unit:

The project to combat violence against women at the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution held a recreational trip for a number of the women taking part in the project's therapy groups, entitled "Together let us make a life without violence festival". The trip was held at the Al-Huda rest house on the Gaza seashore on 30/11/2011.

At the start of the recreational trip, the clinical specialist on the project, Reem Abu Fayed, reviewed the main activities and programmes of the Conflict Resolution Center and its future events, in addition to speaking about the role of the project to combat violence against women in strengthening the protection of women in the local community. She pointed to the role played by a number of associations in hosting the therapy groups at their premises in the Gaza governorates.

Abu Fayed said: "The number of women taking part in the recreational trip reached 100 from the therapy groups, and they expressed how much they had benefited from the project and spoke about their experience in it." She added: "The women are distributed across the therapy groups in a varied way: there are those who suffer at the hands of their husband, or their husband's family, or their children, as well as those who face problems of violence arising from illness or fear."

She explained that a number of the women in the groups had been subjected to insult and abuse because they had given birth to children with disabilities, or because they had become widows, or because of divorce, or because of late marriage. She explained that the project to combat violence against women will be keen to provide more services and programmes to abused women in the coming period and to ensure they are given all the rights guaranteed to them by Palestinian law.

The recreational trip included a number of varied items and the distribution of gifts and prizes, amid happiness and joy from the women taking part in the trip, who offered their thanks to the Conflict Resolution Center and to the project for supporting them within society.

It is noted that this recreational trip comes within the events of the 16 days campaign to combat violence against women, in which the Conflict Resolution Center takes part with a number of activities and events in the Gaza and West Bank governorates.