alQaws Training for Institutions: Significant Progress in Social Discussion

In the first week of July, alQaws has completed its annual training for civil society institutions in Ramallah for the fifth consecutive year. alQaws held the training at its Ramallah office, with 14 attendees from different institutions from the area.

Participating institutions have varied in terms of the nature and scope of their work and included institutions working on gender issues, such as the Arab Forum for Sexuality, and other human rights and women's organizations such as alHaq in Ramallah, the Rural Women's Association and the Arab Rehabilitation Society.

Over the course of three meetings (total of 12 hours), the training discussed key topics aboutsexual and gender diversity issues such as:  definitions and key terms, challenges of civil society to discuss and integrate sexual and gender diversity issues in their work, as well as the topic of social violence against LGBTQs in Palestine.  The discussion about social violence focused on ways to understand the various structures underlying the spread of violence against LGBTQ people in Palestine; while emphasizing that stereotypes and prejudices should be actively addressed.

The training was facilitated by alQaws activists, and it has been clear that progress has been made in the social discussion around sexual and gender diversity issues in Palestine. For example, while participants in previous trainings used to engaged in the discussion through problomatic framework like “Causes on Homosexuality,” recent traininsg show that participants are more interested in leading a discussion that center their own responsibility as civil society organization in comabting social violnce againts LGBTQ people in Paletins. 

This training is part of our “Educational/Professional Training” project that offers various training courses - total of 100 training hours - to civil society organizations and social/political movements throughout the year in different geographical areas in Palestine.