This project is funded by the European Union
In order to overcome community resistance and be able to address accepted attitudes and harmful practices that contribute to the prevalence of GBV, the proposed action will introduce an innovative participatory technique - "Interactive Community Theatre". This technique has proven successful in interventions in Jordan and Palestine in addressing and influencing community understanding of sensitive social issues and is the most appropriate tool to surmount taboos and to allow for community debates and mobilization in an indirect manner. The technique will be adapted to the local contexts and specifically geared towards exploring individual attitudes, behaviours, and enabling environments that underlie GBV in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen. Community performances will enhance women’s knowledge of their rights and will allow rights concepts to be transmitted to male community members in an indirect and non-threatening way.
Introducing interactive community theatre as an innovative tool to discuss GBV and to raise awareness of women’s rights
The ability to develop and implement advocacy strategies are crucial skills that this proposed action will provide target CSOs. It will link community theatre performances with advocacy work by using the messages and voices collected from the field as the basis for advocacy messages. This evidence based advocacy work helps create bottom-up policy change and is expected to increase the trust of policy makers in CSOs.
Building CSO capacity in bottom-up policy change dialogue
This will involve linking, coordinating and integrating CSOs with existing social movements working for women’s rights and addressing GBV. The action will provide for exchange of experiences and the dissemination of lessons among partners involved while also distilling policy and practice recommendations for other interested parties in neighbouring countries.
Enhancing CSO ability to conduct joint initiatives with other stakeholders
The proposed action, Women’s Empowerment through Stage Animated Awareness and Lobbying (WESAL), consists of enhancing the ability of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen to better address gender based violence (GBV) through raising community awareness and engaging with advocacy initiatives. ‘WESAL’, which in the Arabic language comes from the root ‘to join’, is an expression that means ‘channel of communication’ and understanding’, both concepts that capture the strategy of the proposed action; facilitating dialogue between communities and policy makers around GBV using innovative techniques and through the direct engagement of civil society.
The overall objective to which this proposed action aims to contribute towards is that civil society in the region becomes an integral partner in development, democratic reform processes and upholding human rights. The capacities and skills of CSOs at communicating and working with national advocacy initiatives and policy and decision makers to accelerate democratic reform processes and to fight
discrimination and defend the fundamental rights and freedoms of all citizens means that they are an integral partner in these processes and movements.
It’s an regional project are implemented in 3 countries( Yemen , Jordan and Egypt) .The project aim to combat violence against women through raising the community awareness using the community theatre tool and transfer community suggestion, interactions , solutions and recommendations to policy makers.
The project main activities are as follow:
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Identify community-specific GBV issues.
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Conduct training of trainers in interactive community theatre techniques.
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Mobilize communities for discussing GBV issues.
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Conduct interactive community theatre performances on selected GBV themes at local and national levels.
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Document the process, lessons learned and results.
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Conduct legislative analysis and power mapping exercise
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Develop and implement tailored approaches for key stakeholders and representatives.
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Develop issue driven advocacy strategies in partnership with key stakeholders
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Develop and implement project advocacy plans in Egypt and Jordan.
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Facilitate a regional exchange forum.
What is WESAL?
Our concrete actions
Our Objectives
* Civil society organizations in the Middle East are effectively influencing policy change and contributing to democratic reform processes and to upholding the fundamental human rights and freedoms of all persons regardless of sex, class, ethnicity or religious affiliation.
* Target civil society organisations in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen are effectively raising public awareness and influencing policy makers to address gender based violence.
By the end of the proposed action, target CSOs will be able to:
• Use interactive community theatre to raise awareness and mobilize communities.
• Address GBV issues within local communities.
• Use community voices to inform advocacy messages.
• Develop advocacy strategies and implement advocacy plans in partnership with stakeholders.
• Coordinate and integrate with existing social movements promoting women’s rights and addressing GBV maximise impact in the long term.