The raising awareness section is an umbrella for a number of related ventures part of the Community Activities Unit. WAV has been inundated with requests to come to schools and give talks and lectures on various subjects, in particular the issue of sexual abuse.

There has also been an increase in the number of requests made by individuals and their parents for someone from WAV to personally go to their homes to talk to them about various aspects of sexual abuse. The amount of such requests is the highest it has been in the history of WAV according to Fidaa Tabounay-Abu Dbay, the coordinator of the raising awareness program.

WAV have been trying for a long time to include the raising awareness material in the official school curriculum. Recently WAV has been approached by the Ministry of Education and will soon enter into talks to discuss this proposal. We hope that these talks will be successful.
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The raising awareness project has also started working with people who are employed in children’s crèches and after school homework clubs. The workers are being educated on how to recognize signs of physical, sexual or psychological abuse of children. They are also being trained on how to deal with a situation where they feel a child in their care is being abused in some way by someone at home or in their community.

So far this initiative is going well and the facilitators are receiving a lot of support and co-operation from the people they are training.

Areas within the raising awareness program:

• Program for developing school curricula
• Empowerment forum for Palestinian women in the villages 
• Leadership training and support groups
• International advocacy initiatives