Grants Awarded

• Ahli Balatah El-Balad Club – Improved Care for Palestinian Diabetics in the Nablus, Palestinian Authority

  This initiative uses the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) to improve the health of diabetics in the Nablus area in the West Bank. The program includes diabetic nutrition, social support for diabetics, physical exercise, and prevention awareness. The program targets women and men aged 30-60 years with a majority of women (at least 70%). They have just completed year 1.

• Atid Bamidbar – Improved Nutrition in the Southern Negev, Israel

  This is a joint farming and additional activities venture between the Israeli Jewish town of Yeruham and the unrecognized Israeli Bedouin village of Rahme. There are joint farming, shared meals and nutritional activities for children and adults. They have completed year 1.

• Augusta Victoria Hospital (East Jerusalem) – Chronic Disease Self-Management for Type 1 Diabetic Teens in Gaza – New 2019

  This just approved initiative will use the Stanford CDSMP program together with mobile applications for 100 type 1 teenage diabetics in Gaza. Program to be managed by Augusta Victoria Hospital.

• The Family Defense Society (FDS) – Obesity Among Palestinian Women, Nablus Palestinian Authority

  FDS has expanded its longstanding commitment to improve the life of women subject to domestic abuse to now include prevention of obesity. This is taking place in Palestinian refugee camps near Nablus and the city of Nablus. This intervention uses, in part, the Stanford CDSMP. They have completed two years.

• The Ma’an Forum for Bedouin Women in the Negev

  Ma’an (Arabic for “together”) was established by members of Israeli’s Bedouin community to reduce the alarmingly high rates of gender-based physical and sexual abuse in Bedouin Arab society by providing advocacy, support services such as a hotline and developing rights awareness including a regional network of supporters to combat gender abuse and discrimination on a broader scale. They are finishing their third and last year. Learn More

• ASSAF, Tel Aviv, Israel; African Refugees Asylum Seekers Living with HIV in Israel

  This initiative supports refugees and asylum seekers in Israel who are HIV-positive, many of whom are survivors of torture, rape, and other abuses faced en route to Israel when escaping war and extreme poverty in Africa. The program also works to prevent further transmission of the disease and to mitigate the social stigma of HIV. In this fourth year, Healing Across the Divides has funded Assaf which, in turn, has focused on counseling for HIV positive individuals together with prevention. Our partner, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has continued to support the Israel Aids Task Force (IATF). The IATF worked with Assaf in the first three years. This program finishes in 2019.  Learn More

• Beterem – Safe Kids Israel

  Working to decrease rates of child accidents and fatalities, which are especially high in Arab and Jewish ultra-orthodox communities. HATD’s unique, cross-generational and cross-cultural model trains Jewish and Arab grandmothers to become agents of community change for saving lives. This program has received numerous awards. This initiative is in its last year. Learn More

• Jerusalem African Community Center, PTSD Treatment for African Refugee Asylum Seekers (RAS) in Israel

  This new initiative will be a pilot psychosocial support program in Jerusalem providing group therapy for RAS women survivors of torture in Sinai. The program will provide them with an understanding of the symptoms they experience, along with ways of coping with their trauma.

• LEILA Community Bike Workshops in Partnership with HER ACADEMY

  The new initiative is a joint effort between Leila, a women-led, grassroots, feminist project, affiliated with the Israel Bike Association with Her Academy, a Tel Aviv based NGO that helps women leaving prostitution. The main objective which is slated to start in 2-3 months is to ensure access to greater health and social mobility via physical mobility and sustainable transport for 24 women leaving prostitution in Tel Aviv and 600 women from economically challenged communities in the city. They will be offered well-organized, women-led, accessible bicycle mechanic workshops which break down cultural and socio-economic barriers, increases social inclusion and interaction, and ensure the economic, cultural, and health benefits of cycling are accessible to marginalized women.

• The Palestinian Working Woman Society and Development, South Hebron Hills, Palestinian Authority

  Advocating for psychological well-being and health rights for Palestinian women and youth by providing psychological counseling and support to communities south of Hebron, the West Bank, who live under the daily pressures of occupation, warfare, domestic violence, and poverty. This initiative is in its last year. Learn More

• Yes Theatre Drama Therapy – Southern Hebron Hills, Palestinian Authority – New 2019

  This just begun drama therapy initiative in the Hebron area will contribute to the improvement of the mental health status of Palestinian children, youth and women. The target group 100 10-15 year old children; 100 16-18 year old teens; 100 20-35 year old women. Each person needs to have been in conflict with Israeli law and detained by Israelis; or loved ones whose relative was arrested and/or killed by Israelis; or exposed to diff kinds of violence; daily contact with settlers or soldiers.

2004 – 2018

• The Kayan Feminist OrganizationKayan helps further women’s rights and improve their health through leadership training programs in northern Israel, empowering hundreds of Arab women in dozens of communities to challenge the gender-based discrimination they face and better understand their gender-specific health needs.
• Al-Maqdese “Unplugged”: Drug Abuse Prevention for Palestinian YouthProfessor Rawson identified an Arabic speaking professional expert in Unplugged to provide training to Al-Maqdese staff, the police department and Directorate of Education. Because of travel restrictions, Dr. Nael Hassan, an Egyptian psychiatrist living in Abu Dhabi provided the 12 training sessions by Skype. one of the main challenges (and benefits) of the program is that participating schools are located in the Al-Ram area of Jerusalem. This area is a grey zone, meaning it is not under the control of either the Palestinian or Israeli authorities, thus it is virtually lawless with a large population and widespread presence of drugs and weapons.
• Caritas Chronic Disease ProgramCaritas Chronic Disease Program exponentially increases the impact of community-based chronic self-management in the Palestinian towns of Kufr Malik, Deir Abu Mash’ai, Abboud, and Shaqba in the West Bank.
• Mesila: Empowerment and Family Planning for Women in the Asylum Seeking Community This is a jointly funded effort with United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and it began in the fall of 2016. This project focuses on women of the asylum seeker community and will include a network of women from the community who, after intensive training, will become the primary resource for women on family planning and women’s rights. Mesila is also working to have women’s organizations in Israel make their services available to the refugee community.

• The Israeli Association of Community Centers (2012 – 2015 Grantee) The Israel Association of Community Centers in Israel promotes women’s health in the ultra-orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof by raising awareness about women’s health needs on a community-wide level and cooperating with local religious authorities to change attitudes about women’s health.

• Friends by Nature (2012 – 2014 Grantee) Friends by Nature is helping to empower Israeli Ethiopian women to play active roles in promoting women’s and family health issues in their families and communities, along with battling new challenges facing Ethiopians in Israel such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure by reconnecting families to traditional Ethiopian foods and active lifestyles.

• Yasmin Al-Nagab (2012 – 2015 Grantee) Yasmin Al-Nagab for the Health of Women and Family is a community-based grassroots organization founded by a group of Bedouin Arab women with backgrounds in medicine, law, education, and social welfare to enhance the health of the rural Bedouin women of Al-Nagab ‎‎(the Negev) desert in southern Israel.

• Head to Toe: A Joint Project of Arab and Jewish Women with Disabilities (2012 – 2015 Grantee) Many disabled young women—especially those in Israel’s Arab and orthodox-Jewish sectors—are not given the tools to properly care for their health. Head to Toe supports such women by empowering them to take greater responsibility for their bodies despite their disabilities.

• Hiyot (Amharic for “Life”) (2012 – 2014 Grantee) Hiyot helps Ethiopian-Israeli teenage girls become agents of change in their communities and among their peers and families in order to spread knowledge and legitimize discussion of sexual health issues generally considered off-limits in traditional Ethiopian society.

• The Rahat Women’s Association (2012 – 2014 Grantee) A women-supporting-women non-profit serving the largest Bedouin community in Israel and the world, the Rahat Women’s Association empowers Bedouin women in Israel’s Negev to take charge of their lives, become productive members of society, and build a future for themselves that they would once have deemed impossible.

• The Ne’eman Association for the Prevention of Strokes and the Support of Stroke Victims (2015 Grantee) Ne’eman was founded by a group of stroke victims to provide support other stroke victims and their families while promoting prevention and intervention programs for the larger population.

• Hadassah Optimal (2012 – 2015 Grantee) Improving the health of young women and their families in northern Israel though the training of Mother and Child Health Clinic nurses (“Tipat Halav”) in the importance of proper nutrition and regular physical activity.

• Dar Al-Kalima and the “Fit for Life” Program (2012 – 2015 Grantee) Bethlehem based-Dar Al-Kalima works to promote individual and community health in response to specific community needs through the establishment of service facilities and programs that allow individuals to take proactive roles in maintaining their well-being.

• One in Nine (2012 – 2015 Grantee) One in Nine works to raise awareness for early detection of breast cancer amongst Israel’s disadvantaged communities and orthodox Jewish sector in particular, while providing support to those who have been diagnosed with the illness.

• The Women’s Studies Center (2012 – 2013 Grantee) The Women’s Studies Center is a Jerusalem-based human rights organization working to transform prevailing social attitudes towards women in Palestinian society and provide psychological support to women in need.