Gaza - CDMC Community Media and Development Center - May 2023

“It was a valuable experience that developed our previous experiences and strengthened our role as young men and women in the process of raising awareness about digital security in society.” Says lawyer Heba Abu Al-Ataya, one of the participants in the orientation sessions for the facilitators of the digital security workshops held by the Community Media and Development Center (CDMC).

The orientation sessions, which lasted for 3 consecutive days, were attended by 20 lawyers, media professionals and activists who participated in the two digital security projects over the past two years, who led dozens of education and awareness workshops about digital security among school and university students in all governorates of the Gaza strip.

Fadwa Abdullah, coordinator of the project “Guiding the community towards digital safe spaces by promoting digital literacy in the Gaza Strip,” indicated that the participants in the orientation sessions had gone through different stages where they were trained and built their capacities on everything related to concepts and behaviors of digital security and promoting prevention and protection on the Internet, then they moved on to the stage of managing awareness workshops, then orientation sessions.

Abdullah explained, “During the follow-up of the Community Media and Development Center (CDMC) to the participants in the previous stages, this year it decided to build on their current experiences so as to provide them with a unique and specialized space to evaluate and develop their experiences, through a series of orientation sessions, during which they were provided with the knowledge and skills they need to be specialized trainers in the field of raising awareness about digital security.”

During the first orientation session, the participants presented their experiences in facilitating awareness workshops, and discussed the challenges they faced during them, and how these experiences affected their digital awareness and their role as change makers. The session also included enhancing their knowledge of public awareness and advocacy strategies in the field of digital security.

In addition to the above, the second session dealt with the principles and basics of digital citizenship, during which the participants developed the training package for the awareness workshops, while the last session focused on presenting and evaluating the training materials.

Abdullah noted that the Community Media and Development Center (CDMC) seeks to reach the largest number of groups that need awareness about digital safety, especially among children and adolescents. Therefore, during the next stage, it will continue to organize many workshops in a group of schools of the Ministry of Education in All governorates of the Gaza Strip.

It is worth mentioning that the orientation sessions came within the activities of the project “Guiding the community towards digital safe spaces by promoting digital literacy in the Gaza Strip”, which is implemented by the Community Media and Development Center (CDMC) in partnership with CCFD. The project aims to combat all forms of electronic gender violence, as well as raising awareness about the safe use of social media platforms.

You can view the project activities: https://cdmcgaza.ps/ar/2023/05/18

It is noteworthy that the Community Media and Development Center (CDMC) is a development and media institution that invests and employs the media as a platform for democratic discourse, advocacy for human rights and citizenship, and the promotion of social justice, freedom and prosperity.