Society of Palestinian Women Committees

The Union of Palestinian Women Committees Society was founded in the year 1980 under the name (Union of Palestinian Women Committees) purposing to empower Palestinian women on all levels and to contribute in the Palestinian national struggle against the Israeli military illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories. In the year 2001, the Union was licensed by the Palestinian interior ministry under the name (Society of Palestinian Women Committees) with the registration number RA: 297 C. the Union is a progressive women mass- based organization and an indivisible part of the Palestinian women movement in particular and the national movement in particular.
Vision: UPWC strives to build a civil democratic progressive community free of all forms of discrimination and respects women’s rights as part of human rights in general.
Mission: UPWC struggles to empower Palestinian women and develop their circumstances to achieve real equity between men and women as well as equity among all social classes. Moreover, the Union fights to ensure positive affirmation of women within all the laws active in Palestine. The Union, on the other hand, considers itself part of the Palestinian national movement that struggles against the Israeli illegal occupation to achieve the national independence. UPWC, considering itself part of the universal progressive movement, works alongside with the international progressive movement against the militarization of globalization as well as against any form of discrimination imposed on any social sector (especially women) wherever it takes place.

Strategic Objectives:

-    Contributing in the national struggle to establish an independent Palestinian state
-    Contributing in empowering women on all levels (social, political, economical, and cultural levels)
-    Motivate women base to participate in the decision making process.
-     Activate coordination with Palestinian women movement to form a unified Palestinian women movement
-    Lobbying on the decision makers and legislators to issue a modern civil laws set to ensure developing the Palestinian community.
-    Defending the rights of Palestinian refugee and imprisoned women
-    Develop the administrative and financial structure of the Union as well as developing the institutional performance.

UPWC projects:

Empowering women to contribute to building a just, equal and democratic society:  the project aims at empowering women to confront society with injustice and violence faced by them, contribute to build a just, equal and democratic society, to play an active role in social movements in of their society. Especially it aims at developing training structures on conflict resolution grassroots’ leadership and civil society building within the UPWC network in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The project is a training of trainers programme to develop:
•    Adapted methods of nonviolent conflict resolution in respect to the situation of women in Palestinian society.
•    A pool of trained resource persons (trainers) to assist with developing grassroots’ leadership.
•    Contacts to movements, campaigns and resources on the international level.
•    Experience with a pilot training project that can be elaborated. (This experience may be gathered either within a locally restricted area of pioneer villages, refugee camps, or sample villages around the major cities, etc., where trained grassroots’ workers will apply their skills and knowledge and evaluate the effects.)
The project targeted 30 youth leaders and women as trainers and 300 young leaders and women as indirect beneficiaries through attending the trainings and the workshops hold by the project. The UPWC now establishes a center equipped with the most modern means of training to be qualified as training and studies center in women’s issues and Gender.

Women’s Agricultural Cooperatives: The idea of the project is based on forming productive women agricultural and food processing  cooperatives in order to serve the most possible number of women to provide them with a resource of income that helps in improving their circumstances.

The Project aims to empower women personally and economically to reach a stage where they are capable of defending their rights. UPWC managed 9 women’s cooperatives in Qarawa Bani Zeid village, Iskaka village, deir Samit village, Yatta village, Sie’r, Nahalin, AlKhader, Bitter, Bita . 300 women are targeted in this project.

Sponsorship Project –From Family to Family (2004- continuous): This project aims to support Palestinian families, particularly those who have lost their supporter or are headed by women, through providing them with adoption (sponsorship) arrangement projects supported by some friendly foreign families. The programme focuses on the need for joining all Palestinian families wherever they live. At the same time, it aims at improving the living standards of some local families through this kind of support.300 families monthly benefited from this project.

Female University Students’ Scholarships: This programme aims to encourage women to continue their vocational and/or academic education and support them to be enrolled in the educational institutions, the UPWC works at finding ways to support girls to continue their education; some of the girls are living under hard economic conditions or far from the educational institutions. The programme emphasizes the right of girls, especially in rural and remote areas, to continue their education in vocational or scientific level. Through the last year, 87 female students benefited from the programme.

Women’s Centers: UPWC run around 20 women and children’s centers in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip regions. These centers aim to effort places where women and children can benefit from the projects and activities that running there as: vocational training especially in computer skills, sports, lectures, trainings, recreational Games…etc. 1500 children and women benefit from the centers monthly.

Childhood Programme (kindergartens, Curriculum, Summer Camps & activities): this programme began since 1985. The Union supervises 26 nurseries and kindergartens named “Ghassan Kanafani Kindergartens” that applies unified modern education system. The UPWC provides 60 positions for professional supervisors who are trained through the Union and the kindergartens body, which increased the credibility of the kindergartens in all the locations. At the same time, the kindergartens spread in the remote and poor areas. Moreover, the Union supervises children centers and clubs and summer comps in all the locations where it is active. Yearly 1200 children Benedit from this programme.

Community Awareness Program: The program aims at increasing women awareness and generates the distinguished Palestinian women experiences in order to contribute in documenting the women experience. The union works on building social, political, development, and educational programs and forming legal, health, and thought educational programs in order to raise the awareness among women of these issues through arranging lectures and workshops in the various Palestinian locations as well as discussing these issues during the periodical meetings and courses.