Women and girls survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) face difficulty in accessing institutions that provide multi-sectoral services and contribute to addressing violence issues, and this represents a challenge in the reduction of the phenomenon of GBV.

It was necessary to devise a method that facilitates communication between the two parties, and guarantees protection, privacy and confidentiality for women and girls. In this context, the Community Media Center (CMC) announced on Thursday, March 17, 2022,  the release of the Our Spaces application, with the participation of more than 100 people from representatives of official, civil and academic institutions, partner institutions, financiers, and members of CMC.

The celebration of the application’s release was held in the hall of the Phoenix Hotel in the center of Gaza City, and was also broadcasted on Facebook and Instagram. Andalib Adwan, Director of the CMC, opened The launch ceremony of the Our Spaces application by welcoming the attendees and partners, and congratulating them on the occasion of International Women’s Day. She also recognized the efforts of CMC in supporting and advocating the issues and rights of women and youth, and developing ways to address them, in addition to highlighting them in the media.

She added that the application can provide an easier, faster and safer space that facilitates the access of women and girls victims and survivors of GBV to multi-sectoral service providers from institutions operating in the Gaza Strip. The programmer Alaa Hathat, one of the programmers who worked on the design of the application, announced the opening of registration for young programmers to participate as teams in a digital hackathon to develop trial versions of the application.

Moreover, a knowledge training was held for 18 young programmers for three teams who participated in the Our Spaces hackathon, which was implemented by the CMC. Kholoud Al-Sawalmeh, Project Manager at the CMC, said, "We conclude the activities of the first year of the project "Improving Protection for Women and Youth from Gender-Based Violence - Our Safe Spaces" by launching the Our Spaces application, which is one of the project’s activities. The Our Safe Spaces project, in partnership with Terre des Hommes - Switzerland, aims to advocate for women’s rights, gender equality and combat gender-based violence, as well as supporting women and girls’ access to multi-sectoral services through media and information and communication technology, as an advanced step.