A report on the family meeting point 2010

A woman was deprived of her daughter for three years in which she tasted neither rest nor happiness. This woman was forced to give up custody of her daughter in exchange for obtaining her divorce papers, and she did not realise that that paper had no value and did not forfeit her right to visitation, so she lived in the hell of deprivation, until hope lit her way when she obtained a visitation ruling with the help of the family meeting point's team. But a surprise and a shock awaited her: the child refused to accept her and wept bitterly. Here our role at the family meeting point began in solving that problem, by working with the mother on one side and giving her the necessary guidance for dealing with the child, and by giving the child sufficient support to accept her mother. With repeated sessions and the team's efforts, the mother came to enjoy seeing her child, playing with her and taking her in her arms.
This is one of the success stories crowned by the family meeting point, which was established in 2002 and is one of the programmes of the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution.
The family meeting point aims at easing the effects of the harshness of separation, particularly on children, and at easing the psychological effects arising from visits taking place at police stations. This is what led the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution to carry out the family meeting point programme to receive visitation cases for the children of separated spouses referred from the sharia courts, or by mutual agreement, at the Centre and its branches in Gaza, the Middle governorate, Khan Younis, Hebron and Nablus.
To this end, the family meeting point set aside rooms equipped and prepared to receive children and to give them a feeling of comfort and safety so that the visit may take place.
It also worked on providing specialists to supervise the cases: there is the lawyer and the psychological and social specialist, who work as a team aiming at fulfilling the noble message of providing a positive family atmosphere and a safe environment for parents to see their children.
The number of cases received in 2010 reached around 169 cases across all the family meeting point's branches in the Gaza Strip, distributed across the days of the week, while the total number of cases received since the meeting point was established is around 350.
It should be noted that the family meeting point's team has achieved many accomplishments at several levels, reaching 26 success stories in 2010, consisting of: converting the visitation ruling into hosting in many visitation cases, and reuniting many families through social intervention after both parties agreed.