Middle East:

Israel & Palestine

Israel

In July 2007, La Casa de Maria associate director and Capacitar board member Juliet Spohn Twomey and Capacitar founder/director Pat Cane offered six workshops to over 150 women and men sponsored by Women in the Center in Nazareth.

In Israel participants included mental health professionals at Mashabim Trauma Center in Kiryat Shmona, greatly impacted by the bombings of last summer's second Lebanese war. Another workshop in Nazareth included young women from Israel and Palestine who are leaders in the project, Creativity for Peace. Women in the Center hosted a gathering of Jewish, Christian and Muslim women, including Arab childcare workers. Followup workshops are offered by Women in the Center team members Asmahan Mansur and Lora Hillel Dicker. An in depth training is planned for 2009-2010.

Palestine: Westbank

Palestinian women

Three different workshops were offered to Palestinian groups on the West Bank: 
for a clinic in Barta'a, where there are very few health services for families; in Ramallah for a women's sewing cooperative; and in Jenin for a cooperative of village women who are trying to keep alive their handicrafts and traditions.

Arabic and Hebrew translations of the Capacitar Emergency Kit are now available, thanks to Women in the Center leaders: Aura Hammer for the Hebrew translation and Asmahan Mansur for the for the Arabic translation.