Eritrean Women's Community Center

Description

The Eritrean Women's Community Center in Tel Aviv is an initiative designed and run independently by a group of Eritrean refugee women. Established in November 2011, the center aims to provide Eritrean women with a safe space as well as access to important services. This center is the first and only one of its kind, utilizing a grass roots approach to support Eritrean women in a fundamental way. It offers high-standard programming including classes in English, Hebrew, computer literacy, family planning and workers' rights, assistance for the Refugee Status application as well as individual mental and physical support for women. Representing a safe space, the Center stands as a community fixture recognized as the location women can turn to in order to access information, services and support.

Over the years, the EWCC has become a community fixture; a place of support and belonging for women, many of whom survived torture in Sinai, and face a myriad of challenges in the socioeconomic environment in Israel such as a lack of access to public services and domestic abuse. Providing a place as the EWCC where women have the chance to improve or learn new skills come together and exchange experiences establishes an extremely important part for their life in Israel. Many of the women are single mothers struggling with the absence of the emotional and physical support of their family and community they had before coming to Israel.