Social Transformation programme / REFORM
REFORM’s Social Transformation programme aims at increasing social cohesion and solidarity, focusing on bridging the gap between polarized groups. To this end, REFORM seeks to promote national harmony through the establishment of safe acting platforms which encourage broad-based participation grounded on the principle of intellectual pluralism: “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!” Voltaire.
REFORM teaches participants how to apply practical research methodologies in order to address conflict/crisis situations within the Palestinian society, focusing on finding common ground between the conflicting parties.
The past few years have witnessed dramatic developmental changes in the Palestinian community on the political, socio-cultural and economical levels. However, these changes have been centered in the main cities. While Refugee camps, villages and other marginalized areas continue to be affected by many social, cultural, economic and political challenges. Therefore, "Bridges" project was launched as a supporting developmental process on both the social and cultural levels.
"Bridges" aims at creating a bottom up social change process by establishing relationships between and within young generations. Also, empowering grassroots organizations and marginalized groups in order to enhance their participation in the regulatory processes and to engage in structural and cultural reform.
This project targets refugee camps, the surrounding villages and cities in five districts: Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah Jericho and Nablus.
Milestones:
- Capacity Building Workshops.
- House meetings.
- Public meetings.
- Voluntary work.
- Quarterly Reports.
- “ACT Academy” for Critical Thinking and Conflict Transformation.
- Empower the young generation in order to play a more active role in the regulatory processes and in the psycho-social sphere.
- Foster developmental processes in the targeted areas.
- Establish lobbying networks to improve the living conditions of the target groups and improve their access to formal public processes.
- Establish safe joint platforms for action for target groups of refugees from the camps and their surrounding areas.
The Palestinian Association for Empowerment and Local Development