In February 2024, Tadwein Center for Gender Studies launched a new project to combat gender-based violence in Ezbet Wahda Wataniyya in ​​Zahraa El Maadi. 

Project objectives:

• Provide information about and tools to respond to gender based violence for survivors and those most at risk for gender-based violence: women and girls.
• Develop the capacity of local community based organizations to support women and girls and create larger changes in the community
• Raise awareness of gender-based violence among the broader community and particularly men and boys.

Project activities:

• Creating and meeting with a community committee from the area to learn about their needs and to discuss the form and substance of the project
• Training with the community committee about gender-based violence and its prevalence 
• Developing “community champions” or members of the community enthusiastic about learning more about gender-based violence and enhancing their communications skills and enhancing their leadership skills
• Conducting a knowledge, attitudes, and practices to understand gender-based violence in Ezbet Wahda Wataniyya in coordination with the community champions who were trained in data collection and used this to communicate with a sample of 300 people in the area
• Designing a map of community services and resources available in the area
• Hosting two health caravans that served 420 children, women, and men that saw to a number of different health 

Tadwein Center for Gender Studies implemented an evidence-based pilot project titled “Strengthening Refugee and Immigrant Women and Girls’ Safety”. The project was implemented from October 2023 to January 2024 in 4 host communities in three areas in Greater Cairo (Haram, Fisal, and 6th of October). The main goal of the project is to address gender disparities and empower both refugee and host communities, thereby reducing vulnerabilities to Gender-Based Violence (GBV).

The project involved a multifaceted intervention, including GBV awareness sessions, psychosocial support, community organizations and community champions capacity building sessions, health caravans, and development and distribution of educational materials (booklets and copybooks) on early marriage and Female Genital Mutilations (FGM) and school bags.

Project Results

• Capacity of 15 Community Champions from the target community were developed. Trainings were held on leadership, GBV and psychosocial support and others on communication skills for behavioral and social change.
• 80 GBV Awareness Sessions reaching 2000 community members (mainly refugees from Sudan, Syria and Yemen) were conducted.
• Five health caravans targeting 1.500 women, men, and children were conducted in the target communities. The caravan included diverse activities such as awareness sessions, public lectures, children’s activities, medical examinations, an MOH mobile clinic, and a bazaar.
• Educational Material has been developed: Two educational booklets, titled “I am still a child” and “FGM is a crime”, and 10 copybooks on FGM and Child Marriage were developed and around 36,000 copies of them were distributed to targeted community members, along with 6000 school bags.
• Audio-visual production: Over the course of the project, a documentary film was developed featuring the journey of one of the project’s community champions. Another animated film was developed, narrating a GBV-incident experienced by one of the project’s beneficiaries in Sudan during the conflict.
• Social Media Campaigns: Two impactful social media campaigns were developed and shared on Tadwein’s social media platforms. The campaigns aimed at introducing the project’s approach, activities and messages to a wider audience while highlighting the hardships faced by Sudanese refugees in Egypt and well as issues of GBV which they faced during the conflict and/or during their journey from Sudan to Egypt.

 

In March 2023, Tadwein for Gender Studies, in collaboration with The Civil Society in Development (CISU) have launched a new project under the name of “The Feminist Fabric”. The Project aims to combat Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Egypt by creating a strong female-based network of local feminist initiatives in 8 Egyptian governorates and offering support to them.

The aims of the project;

1. Empowering Feminist initiatives in Egypt to become sustainable structures/bodies capable of combating GBV in Egypt.
2. Developing and implementing a wholistic strategy for all feminist initiatives in the chosen governorates.
3. Enhancing the ability of feminist initiatives to better advocate for an end to GBV in Egypt.
4. Mobilizing and localizing various efforts between the different parties to advocate for policy change at the local level.                                                                                                                                                    The Project includes various activities, including:                                                                                             
   • Workshops
   • Field visits
   • Coaching
   • Round Table Discussions
   • Advocacy Campaigns 

Tadwein for Gender Studies is currently implementing a two-year project titled “El-Madrasa” (2021-2023). The project aims to create an active social movement to end broad societal acceptance of the various forms of violence against women, through the establishment of networks of young women and men in various Egyptian governorates. The project targeted different segments of society, with a special focus on young people. Several activities were conducted as part of this project.

Activities of this project specifically included:

1. Development of an online platform
2. Technical Consultative Meetings
3. First Meetings with El-Madrasa participants
4. Second Meetings with El-Madrasa participants
5. Development of an online training course
6. Media Campaigns
7. Development and printing of communication materials
8. Dissemination Conference