OUR COMMUNITY PROJECTS
COMMUNITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
In a region as complex and volatile as the Middle East, helping to nurture and develop communities is vital. Embrace’s Community development work spans a wide range of projects, including vocational training programmes, women’s empowerment and reconciliation work. Below are just a few examples of the projects Embrace supports.
Anafora - Soteria Programme, Alexandria Desert Road, Egypt
Anafora is a retreat centre on the desert road between Cairo and Alexandria. Embrace supports their Soteria programme, which trains young women to be ‘agents of change’ in their communities in Upper Egypt. It challenges gender stereotypes and brings healing from trauma that many women experience as part of their daily lives.
MECC - Women’s empowerment project, Southern Lebanon
Through the MECC, Embrace helps to fund a women’s empowerment project in Southern Lebanon. The goal of the project is to enhance the wellbeing of vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugee women through the provision of vocational and life-skills training, as well as awareness sessions aimed at educating and empowering vulnerable women.
Musalaha - Female peacebuilding project, West Bank, Palestine
Musalaha is an organisation that teaches, trains and facilitates reconciliation mainly between Israelis and Palestinians from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Their programme for Palestinian and Israeli women delivers training to empower women to be peacebuilders in and between their communities, through training, conferences and residential encounters.
The Salaam Centre - Community Centre, Cairo, Egypt
The Daughters of St Mary Coptic Convent is in Ezbet el Nakhl, on the edge of Cairo. This area is home to a community known as ‘the Zabaleen’, who collect, sort and recycle the city’s rubbish. The Salaam Centre was set up to respond to the needs of the community, which include high levels of drug addiction and domestic abuse as well as poor education, healthcare and nutrition and lack of access to legal advice.