Women's Projects

* Hebrew and Arabic Reading and Writing Project

* Women’s Leadership through Theater Project

* Women’s Economic Empowerment Project

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Hebrew and Arabic Reading and Writing Project

The project involves 30 women and youth in Rahat who meet twice a week for six months, specifically targeting women who did not learn reading and writing skills in schools or other educational frameworks. For six months, the women have the opportunity to learn the Hebrew and Arabic through a program emphasizing basic reading and writing skills. This learning process also stimulates personal empowerment and change within each woman, impacting her personal, professional, and communal status within Bedouin society.

 Each bi-weekly meeting runs two hours and additional private tutoring is available for women depending on their level of knowledge and achievement. The instructors use a combination of books, reading excerpts, composition, writing and worksheets based on the need and level of the students.

Women’s Leadership through Theater Project

This project includes 14 women from Rahat who are selected after going through an interview process. The women meet once a week and are divided into groups for different practical and theoretic workshops based on their levels of skill.

 The subjects taught in this project include: editing, the parts of the camera, photography from different angles, daylight photography, photography in the shade, background in pictures, the camera in motion, sound, building a photography strategy, and camera microphones. All the participants will have opportunities to test their skills on the field, specifically at a women’s photography event at nearby Kibbutz Lahav, at a youth photography event at the municipal community center, and at the children’s karate course.

Women’s Economic Empowerment Project

The project aims to improve the status of women, who make up one of the weakest sectors of society but have great potential to act as agents of social change. This initiative specifically targets women who established or currently manage businesses. These educated career women have the tools and the economic security to confront life’s challenges and the competition in the market. 25 women are part of this project and they meet three times a year.

 This project targets women who are part of the weaker population sectors, specifically Bedouin women who are undergoing an educational process changing them from “dependent women” to “producing women.” The project will enrich them professionally, provide them with advising and financial support for their businesses from certified economists, give them tools to improve their status in the community of Rahat and in Bedouin society, and enable them to contend with the pressures of their surroundings and their income more independently.   

 This project also seeks to strengthen and improve relationships between the Jewish and Bedouin communities through women. Both groups of women have common interests and face similar challenges combining careers and family life. Women are more open to dialogue and establishing a Jewish-Bedouin group at an early stage of this program would help build bridges between the two communities and address many different issues.

 The project’s goal is to emphasize strengthening and advancing weak sectors, elevate their career and business management skills, and improve relations between Jews and Bedouin on the subject of business cooperation. The subjects taught in the meetings include: economics, socio-economic relationships, organizational advising. Women participants attend instructional tours, study days, national conferences, and also are provided with mentoring and financial assistance for business development.