Gaza - Community Media Center - August 2022

The Community Media Center in Gaza opened an intensive training camp on the making and animation of puppets, and how to use them in promoting a culture of women’s rights and the concepts of equality, non-discrimination and gender-based violence. 14 young men and women interested in women’s rights and theatrical work took part.

The training forms part of the activities of the project "Mobilizing Society and the Media to Promote Women’s Access to Justice and Security in the Gaza Strip" within the framework of the second phase of the Sawasiya project, a joint program between the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UN-WOMAN, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Aim is to strengthen the rule of law in the State of Palestine.

Through the project, the Community Media Center seeks to contribute to improving women’s access to justice and their rights through advocacy and awareness-raising efforts on the concepts of gender justice, human and women’s rights in international and local conventions, combating gender-based violence, as well as raising the level of community awareness. Further, they highlight the importance of cybercrime prevention.

The training was inaugurated by Andaleeb Adwan, Director of the Community Media Center, who welcomed the participants where she explained the center’s framework and introduced the project "Mobilizing Society and Media to Promote Women’s Access to Justice and Security in the Gaza Strip", its activities and objectives. She noted the need to develop methods for addressing societal issues and ways to raise them, especially those related to women’s rights and gender-based violence.

On the importance of the training camp, Adwan said: "Children are an essential part of society, and they have the right to know what is going on around them, so it is necessary to work with them and talk about societal issues, especially about those which affect them directly. We we try to help building the capacities of young people and adolescents of both sexes and the skills of making and using puppets, so that they are able to invest puppet theater in promoting awareness of women’s rights and gender-based violence among children. This comes in an attempt to reach children and discuss issues with them in the way they like it and help the interaction with them, and perhaps this is what makes the training qualitative and brings a new opportunity for the participants.”

The training took seven days, with 35 hours of theoretical and practical training, divided into three topics. First, it is about writing the script, next about the theatrical acting, while the third topic focuses on the skills of making and moving puppets.

The participants expressed their happiness at joining the training camp, and expressed their admiration for the way the training was implemented. Especially they mentioned the sequence where the training topics were discussed, starting from enhancing the legal and gender knowledge aspects to theatrical work skills. They participated in theatrical works that support and advocate human rights, and especially the role of women. 

The Community Media Center (CMC) is a non-governmental organization that has been operating in the Gaza Strip since 2007, seeking to develop the role of the media in addressing societal issues, promoting the values ​​of democracy, equality and a culture of human rights, focusing on women and youth issues and highlighting them in various media within the existing approach on human rights.