We’re happy to tell you about two new groups of the Living Safer, Living Longer program in East Jerusalem. One is in partnership with the MiniActive network of Palestinian women (read more about them here), and the other is at the Abna al-Quds Community Center.
Living Safer, Living Longer’s partnership with MiniActive has been so successful that we began a second group this year. The group has 18 participants.
Thus far, all have undergone training in ensuring home safety for families with young children as well as for the elderly. In addition, each was accompanied by the project’s Arabic-speaking staff member in their first home visit. They then continued to make ‘house calls’ on their own.
In order to receive the graduation certificate and volunteer card, each volunteer is required to make at least one house call to one of the group’s members, and two visits each to the homes of local elderly and families with young children.
Graduation certificate and volunteer card
They will continue to make new home visits and return to review the improvements to homes they have already visited. We can’t wait for an upcoming visit from a firefighter from the Wadi Joz firefighting station on March 31. He will give a lecture about preventing and putting out household fires.
Another group that is now undergoing training is taking place at the Abna al-Quds Community Center in the Old City of Jerusalem. There, a group of 26 women has completed the theoretical training and is beginning to make house calls, accompanied by Hirya, the project’s Arabic-speaking staff person.
Sometimes these visits are hard – people often don’t want to invite others into their private space to have them see all they’ve been doing wrong. However, if approached properly, these visits are basically about engaging the public on a personal level to think about home safety. And sometimes, the mentees have suggestions for us, too. One woman who Hirya visited with another volunteer in the Old City suggested, “Don’t wash your floors with too much water, or you could slip!” and “Remove all your rugs from the house!” Definitely worthwhile suggestions.
Thanks to these groups we are refining our work with the volunteers and the most effective methods of engaging the public to improve safety in their homes.
Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their support of Living Safer, Living Longer.
