Gaza Community Mental Health Programme

by Tony Davies

21 January 2003

The founder of the Women's Empowerment Project of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme told me how the project started as a vocational training centre. In addition to the stresses caused by the occupation, many women have to contend with violence and abuse within the home. A husband or a mother-in-law may prevent a woman from attending a psychiatric clinic, but it is acceptable for women to have vocational training which helps them provide for their families. So they attend to learn handicrafts and office skills but also benefit from individual and group counselling and from making friends with women facing similar problems.

There is so much need for the services of the project that three other centres have been set up in different towns. There are cr