Encompass participant Rawan, who came on the Journey of Understanding in March 2013, writes:

Our Encompass Trust experience has definitely been empowering to us, not only as Palestinians, but also as women. We wanted to help other young women gain this empowerment in a local setting, as it is impossible for all of them to attend the Journey of Understanding, so we created a young women’s empowerment group at the Peaceful Education Centre in Tulkarem. So far we have had 6 meetings, and the girls have called the group “Thinking Outside the Box” and created their own logo.

During the meetings we have dialogue around a range of topics that affect girls and women in Palestine, and invite speakers – next week we are having a women’s rights advocate.  We’re also planning an outing to Jericho to learn more about preservation of our land and wildlife.

Here we are playing a form of ‘Where do you stand?’ (agree or disagree):

The statement that got the most discussion was ‘social media is ruining our community’.  Some other hot discussions were ‘community service should be a mandatory part of high school curriculum’ and ‘women in Palestine have equal rights with men’.

After giving the young women a chance to bond and identify community needs, we are starting to plan a community project together – watch this space!