MiniActive

The MiniActive network of over 1,000 Arab women in East Jerusalem has made a name for itself in empowering the community to demand services (see here and here). At the same time, empowerment is building community in a variety of ways, including enriching and fun activities. The MiniActive network has an abundance of those as well. Here are just a few examples:

A group of 20 women has been participating in a baking course. They’ve been learning a wide variety of decorating techniques, from whipped cream to fondant and its multiple possibilities. Nothing like a Spongebob Squarepants cake – Yum!!!

Sponge Bob cake and emoticons

There is also a crochet group, as well as a makeup class.

Learning to Knit & Crochet

And finally, the women have also been able to enjoy trips outside of Jerusalem. In November, we took 100 women on trips up north, to Acco and Rosh Hanikra. Just look at the views they enjoyed…

Group picture Rosh Hanikra

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its continuing support of this program.

The therapeutic effects of gardening have long been widely known. This type of therapy has been used around the world since at least the 1800s.

Our MiniActive program, a network of over 1,200 Palestinian women throughout East Jerusalem who are working on a daily basis to improve their everyday lives, has extensively dealt with environmental issues. Alongside working to improve safety and environmental hazards in residents’ immediate vicinity, MiniActive groups have  partnered with women from other parts of Israel to learn about environmental issues; they have participated in a number of other related activities as well.

Young girls experimenting in gardening

In Jerusalem, the David Yellin Academic College of Education operates a special course in horticulture therapy, but it is regularly available only in Hebrew. Now, they will be able to have access to the course, in Arabic. This is the first time ever that such a course will be made available in Arabic in Jerusalem. Indeed, while gardening therapy programs are available in western Jerusalem, there are no programs, and awareness of its benefits is very low.

We came to an agreement with the College in which the women would pay only half of the tuition fee. Classes will take place once a week for a full day, to enable the women to continue to work. 15 women started the course, which is scheduled to begin in mid-October.

The course is supposed to coincide with the beginning of the academic year, and is open to those trained in special education. Participants will learn about the world of plants and the therapeutic garden – principles of planning, establishing and maintaining such a garden. They will also learn the principles of psychology and psychotherapy, as well as how to design a gardening therapy program and practicums and lab exercises in closed areas.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its ongoing support of this program.

We’ve always known that the MiniActive project was on to something special, and that the 1,000 women – and 150 teenage girls – who take part are doing an amazing job. And now we’re getting to share this knowledge with others around the world. Just last week, our own Hagai Agmon-Snir and Intisar Qaraeen took part in the GPSA (Global Partnership for Social Accountability) Partners Forum 2015 in Washington, DC, USA. They presented MiniActive as a case study for empowering Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem and enabling the provision of municipal and other services. The GPSA was launched in 2012 by the World Bank, and seeks to help civil society organizations solve critical governance challenges. “Everyone who heard the story of MiniActive was very impressed,” said Hagai. “It was a great experience for both of us.” Click here to see the power point that they gave.

Intisar at podium, GPSA

And indeed, MiniActive’s accomplishments in recent months are quite impressive. Work with the teenage girls has developed well. (More about the groups here.) In late February girls from the Jebel Mukaber High School for Girls took on a project to clean up and beautify the road that leads to their school. Unfortunately, during the summer months last year this street was also the site of unrest and violence, which left the street in not-a-very-good-state. The girls cleaned up the street and painted the electricity boxes and the fence that runs along the road. It now not only looks better, the girls and their schoolmates and families, feel much better about their environment.

Jebel Mukaber girls painting March 2015

Also as part of the program the girls’ groups are taking part in ceramics classes, provided by the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. As part of that course, which will finish at the end of May, girls from the Umm Tuba Junior High School for Girls are preparing a giant ceramic clock for the school. Girls from the Jebel Mukaber High School for Girls are decorating a wall with ceramic tiles, which will have representations of their hopes and dreams. This project will also be finished soon; stay tuned for pictures.

MiniActive Women – Continued Accomplishments and Community Building

Here’s a few updates from the largest project for Palestinians – and largest women’s project – in East Jerusalem:

First – we’re expanding! We recently opened several new groups in Ras el-Amud, and welcomed 100 new women to the project. A few statistics about the work: In March, there were 470 requests for repairs, 150 of which were taken care of; In April, there were 600 requests, 200 of which were taken care of. In addition, 25 compost bins were distributed. These included a safety net in Sur Baher, a handrail along the side of a steep road to help pedestrians, fixing potholes, electrical wires, placing safety mirrors on windy roads, and much more. Women from the Old City toured the neighborhood with the worker in charge of garbage collection in that area, and he promised to place another 10 garbage receptacles throughout the Palestinian areas of the Old City. In the beginning of March 20 women met with a representative of the water company. They discussed different difficulties Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem face with regards to water – bills, meters, etc. – and explored ways to solve problems.

Fixing potholes

We continue to develop the professional skills of the women, especially the group leaders. Monthly regional coordinator meetings (who are in charge of several groups in each neighborhood) discuss issues that the women are facing throughout the city – garbage collection, donations to families in need, how to deal with service providers’ sub-contractors (which is common in East Jerusalem), how to interact with the municipal hotline operators, and more. At the end of March there was a large event in honor of the MiniActive women. We thought – March includes International Mothers’ Day, Women’s Day, etc., it should also include a MiniActive Women’s Day. The even attracted more than 250 women, who enjoyed a comedy act, they shared handicrafts that different groups had made, and more.

Women browsing handicrafts women celebration day

Fifty-two MiniActive women participated in a tour of Haifa in March. They visited the Bahai Gardensand then the Beit Hagefen Arab-Jewish Cultural Center. Beit Hagefen operates different volunteer projects in Arab neighborhoods in Haifa, and this tour was by and large a learning tour. The Jerusalem women heard about a number of projects, such as projects for girls at-risk, an “alternative” youth club and a tour of the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood.

The MiniActive women have also been participating in a number of courses:

• Hebrew – they’ve expanded to include both beginning (35 participants) and intermediate (70 participants) levels.
• Computers – 16 participants in an introduction to computers course.
• Lev Isha (Women’s Heart) – program promoting women’s health and nutrition, in cooperation with the Linda Joy Polling Cardiovascular Wellness Center at Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem. Twenty MiniActive women participated.
• Compost instructor – Twelve MiniActive women are participating in a course offered by the David Yellin Academic College of Education in instructing community members in using compost effectively.
• Sports – Forty women are participating in a sports class, which meets twice weekly, that opened in April.

We never ceased to be amazed by the MiniActive project – the scope and volume of their activity (some 1,000 activists, 7,800 subscribers on their Facebook page), what they’ve been able to accomplish, all are the subject of our admiration.

Until a few days ago, MiniActive was only for women above 18 years old (up to 70 and beyond…). Last week we started our first groups of teenagers, “MiniActive Youth“. The program includes training on how to be pro-active in changing one’s immediate environment. They will assist their mothers (who are MiniActive volunteers) in identifying projects for improvement, and also lead other teens in neighborhood-based beautification projects. Because they are minors, their mothers will make the calls to the municipal hotline or other service providers, but they will be the ones doing all the footwork.

The first group of teenagers is in Issawiyah (and a few more are formed now), and this group decided a week ago to take care of one of the old, run-down staircases in the neighborhood. They cleaned it, and then painted it, taking inspiration from the “Rainbow Stairs” that made headlines in Turkey last year, as well as our own local version.

Issawiya Stairs: before and after

Issawiya stairs: beginning work

Painting in progress

May this be the first of many successful projects of this group!

On December 28, 2014, our MiniActive women activists found a notice on a few walls in Shuafat and Beit Hanina, stating that the next day there will be no water in this large area due to maintenance work. The activists understood that these postings would not reach very many people. There is no formal way to spread the word in East Jerusalem, and it was obvious to them that many would find themselves unprepared for a full day without water.

So we used our Miniactive Facebook page. Around 6,000 of the 7,800 on the page are Palestinian Jerusalemite women 18-34 years old (this is 15% of this age group in East Jerusalem!!). We boosted the post and in a few hours, it was “virally” spread to more than 8,000 residents! This meant that almost all the relevant families knew on time!

Notice for water line maintenance – and the statistics of the Facebook post

This is not the first time that we use the MiniActive network for spreading such a message. A few months ago, when there was a suspicion of sewage getting into the drinking water, we used this communication channel to spread the word about using only boiled water. Then, too, it worked very well.

We’ve spoken proudly about our MiniActive network, which today encompasses 900 women in East Jerusalem who work day in, day out to improve everyday lives for them and their families. The network also includes over 7,400 likes on its Facebook page.

MiniActive handicrafts

Since the beginning of the program in 2012 we’ve not only wanted to develop the network’s grassroots leadership and professional skills, a main goal has also been to foster community through a wide range of enrichment activities. Over the past few years this has included photography courses, environment and health courses, exercise classes, tours and trips, and more.

This year we’ve added yet another aspect of community-building – handicraft classes. Thus far there are some 30 women participating in a class in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. Additional classes – also with 30 women in each – are slated to open in Issawiya (northern Jerusalem), Umm Tuba – Sur Baher (southern tip of Jerusalem), and Kufr Aqeb (northern tip of Jerusalem).

Handicrafts Workshop

As we noted previously here and here on the blog, the MiniActive project is not only about improving immediate surroundings, it’s about improving everyday life for Palestinian residents – especially women – in East Jerusalem. As part of that mandate there have been a number of initiatives that were organized either by them, by us, or by others, that enable participants to improve their quality of life.

One example are the exercise classes. There are currently 3 groups – a total of 70 women – who exercise twice a week. Two groups are in the city center (meeting at the East Jerusalem YMCA), and the third group meets in Kufr Aqeb to the north.

A second activity is the series of tours around the Old City, given by our own Dr. Anwar Ben-Badis. There were tours throughout the month of May.

Old City tour

We’ve also taken some of the women on trips outside of Jerusalem. In February we took 55 women to the Tiberias hot springs, and on a boat trip on the Sea of Galilee.  At the end of May, and again last week,  we took another 50 women on a kayaking trip on the Jordan River in the north of the country.

Kayaking

MiniActive women are also participating in a photography course, organized by the Naggar school of Photography, Media, New Music, Visual Communication and Phototherapy in Musrara. Last year some 80 MiniActive women participated in the pilot program; we’re glad that eight more (out of a total of 20 participants) can take part this year in the highly professional program.

Photography course

These are only a few examples of the activities for these effective women activists who transform East Jerusalem into a better and hopeful place. More examples will be reported in future posts!