Grants Awarded
Healing Across the Divides supports projects that promote the health of Israelis and Palestinians while helping to forge inter-agency cooperation that furthers mutual understanding. Projects are chosen based on their ability to most efficiently impact health in the communities in which they operate and their potential to function independently following a period of support by Healing Across the Divides. Our support comes in the form of financial, technical and organizational assistance.
Current List of Grantees
Medical Wadi
(New 2022) Joint Israeli Jewish – Palestinian intervention in Israel for young mothers and their babies. Intervention measuring improved nutrition, well being and communication between the two groups.
Kavlaoved (Israeli) and Cnaaniat (Palestinian)
(New 2022) A joint effort between an Israeli and a Palestinian community group to improve the occupational health of Palestinian workers crossing the border form the Palestinian Territories to work in Israel.
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. Objectives: Improved nutrition and Improved communication between Jews and Bedouin.
Diabetes Palestine – Chronic Disease Self Management for Type 1 Diabetic Teens in Gaza. East Jerusalem/ Gaza, Palestine Authority – 2019
This initiative uses the Stanford CDSMP program together with mobile applications for 200 type 1 teenage diabetics in Gaza, our first ever program in Gaza. The program is managed by Diabetes Palestine. This program started in December 2019.
Kuchinate – Improved Resilience and Economic Support for African Refugee Asylum Seekers, Tel Aviv, Israel– 2020.
African asylum-seeking women endured torture and other traumas en-route to Israel; and in Israel, they are highly susceptible to homelessness, poverty discrimination and domestic abuse. They suffer from a wide range of trauma-related mental health difficulties. Kuchinate is a resilience-based community that was founded in order to offer vital support and empowerment to women asylum seekers through a unique project which combines income generation with psychosocial support.
Yes Theatre Drama Therapy – Southern Hebron Hills , Palestinian Authority – 2019
This 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 different kinds of violence such as harassment from settlers or Israeli soldiers.
Al-Majd
(New 2022) Enhancing the psychosocial and mental health of Palestinian children and their families in Jenin- northern West Bank.
Ladaat
Reproductive rights for Palestinian women living in East Jerusalem.
Our Projects
2004 – 2019
Empowering Women Through Health Initiatives
Helping women gain better access to healthcare and education to insure that the voices, skills and knowledge of women are incorporated into the discussions and decision making in their families and communities.
Grants Awarded:
- Al – Tufula: Promoting nutrition-based wellness and expansion of health rights for Arab women in northern Israel.
- Al-Manal/Kokhav/Mifras b Galil: (Head to Toe) Empowering disabled Arab and Jewish women to take control of their health and sexuality while promoting disability rights in northern Israel.
- Atid Bamidbar: Improved Nutrition in the Southern Negev, Israel.
- Beit Natan: Increasing mammography rates and supporting breast cancer awareness among Orthodox Jewish women in Jerusalem.
- Beterem: Empowering Arab and Jewish grandmothers to prevent childhood domestic accidents in their communities.
- Dar Al Kalima: Expanding health and wellness through exercise and nutrition for young women in the Bethlehem district of the West Bank.
- Family Defense Society (FDS): Prevention and treatment of obesity in Nablus, OPT.
- Hadassah Optimal: Supporting health and wellness of young mothers and their babies with the help of neonatal nurses in northern Israel.
- Hiyot: (Amharic for “life”) Training Ethiopian Jewish teens and mothers in sexual health and wellbeing.
- Ilabun: Promoting women’s health and wellness for Arab communities in northern Israel.
- Israel Association of Community Centers: Promoting women’s health and health awareness for orthodox women outside of Jerusalem.
- Kayan: Expanding health rights of Palestinian women in northern Israel through civic engagement.
- Ma’an: (Arabic for “together”) Preventing domestic violence against Bedouin women and girls in southern Israel.
- Mesila: Providing family planning services and women’s empowerment training for African refugees in Tel Aviv.
- Ne’eman: Increasing awareness about the risks of stroke among women in Israel.
- One In Nine: Saving lives by increasing mammography rates and breast cancer awareness among ultra-Orthodox Jewish women.
- Physicians for Human Rights Israel: Expanding health promotion activities among marginalized Russian women in Beersheva.
- Palestine Working Women’s Society for Development (PWWSD): Providing psychosocial support to combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among Palestinian women and children in the West Bank.
- Rahat: Working to educate Bedouin women in southern Israel about the importance of healthy lifestyle habits.
- Women Against Violence: Promoting women’s health rights among Arab women in Nazareth and the Galilee.
- Women’s Studies Center: Providing psychological support to Palestinian women living in East Jerusalem and Silwan.
- Yasmin El Negev: Empowering Bedouin women in Israel to create social change that will impact the overall well-being of their community.
- Yes Theatre Drama Therapy: Southern Hebron Hills, Palestinian Authority – 2019 – Learn more.
Ending Domestic Violence Against Women and Girls
Battling domestic violence and sexual abuse through awareness campaigns, local intervention programs and personal empowerment training, especially among Bedouin communities.
Grants Awarded:
- Al-Manal/Kokhav/Mifras b Galil: (Head to Toe) Empowering disabled Arab and Jewish women to take control of their health and sexuality while promoting disability rights in northern Israel.
- Ma’an: (Arabic for “together”) Preventing domestic violence again Bedouin women and girls in southern Israel.
- Mesila: Providing family planning services and women’s empowerment training for African refugees in Tel Avi
- Women Against Violence: Promoting women’s health rights among Arab women in Nazareth and the Galilee.
- Yasmin El Negev: Empowering Bedouin women in Israel to create social change that will impact the overall well-being of their community.
Supporting African Refugees in Israel
Establishing family planning and other women’s health services for African refugees and asylum seekers and advocating for community members who are HIV-positive.
Grants Awarded:
- IATF/ASSAF: A partnership between IATF (Israel AIDS Task Force) and ASSAF (Association for Asylum Seekers in Israel, Hebrew for “gathered”) supporting HIV-positive refugees from Africa and preventing further spread of the virus.
- JACC: The Jerusalem African Community Center (JACC) is 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.
- Mesila: Providing family planning services and women’s empowerment training for African refugees in Tel Aviv.
Treating and Preventing the Spread of AIDS
Providing treatment and support to HIV-positive refugees and their families while preventing further spreading of the virus.
Grants Awarded:
- IATF/ASSAF: A partnership between IATF (Israel AIDS Task Force) and ASSAF (Association for Asylum Seekers in Israel, Hebrew for “gathered”) supporting HIV-positive refugees from Africa and preventing further spread of the virus.
Safeguarding Children and Youth
Supporting preventative efforts that promote physical safety, combat drug addiction, expand family planning programs and prevent domestic violence.
Grants Awarded:
- Beterem: Empowering Arab and Jewish grandmothers to prevent childhood domestic accidents in their communities.
- Hadassah Optimal: Supporting health and wellness of young mothers and their babies with the help of neonatal nurses in northern Israel.
- Hiyot: (Amharic for “life”) Training Ethiopian Jewish teens and mothers in sexual health and wellbeing.
Promoting Empowerment and Self-Management of Diabetes
Lowering rates of chronic disease by empowering individuals to take greater responsibility for their health and promoting active engagement in the improvement of one’s well-being.
Grants Awarded:
- Ahli Balatah El-Balad Club: Improved Care for Palestinian Diabetics in the Nablus, Palestinian Authority.
- Bet Shemesh: Promoting health rights for Israeli Jews.
- Caritas: Preventing chronic disease and diabetes among underserved Palestinian men and women in and around Jerusalem.
- Diabetes Palestine: Chronic Disease Self Management for Type 1 Diabetic Teens in Gaza. East Jerusalem/ Gaza, Palestine Authority – 2019
- Friends by Nature: Using local gardens to help Ethiopian Jewish women improve their health through nutrition.
- The Galilee Society: Lowering diabetes rates among Arab communities in northern Israel.
- Palestine Medical Relief Society: Improving diabetes care for men and women in 14 West Bank villages.
- Sha’ab: Raising awareness about the genetic impact of interfamilial marriage.
- Tene Briut: (Amharic and Hebrew for “health”) Preventing diabetes among Ethiopian Jews in northern Israel.
Former Grantees
- 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.
Call for Proposals
Three Year Grants
Healing Across the Divides is interested in funding innovative community efforts to improve
health within a community framework. We are pleased to announce a new call for proposals for
NGOs/ Community Based Groups (CBOs) that seek to improve the health of marginalized
Israelis and Palestinians in any manner within a community framework in both Israel and
Palestine. Proposals must address health challenges, broadly defined, that are common in the
community. We do not fund direct medical care at all. We fund CBOs to improve care within a
community context; this often involves engagement with the medical care system of either Israel
or Palestine. Please see the rest of our website for many examples of the types of
initiative we fund.
Israeli proposal: we encourage applications that serve two communities Jews and Arabs.
If a Palestinian proposal comes from Gaza, the community based group in Gaza must have a West
Bank partner.
We encourage joint Israeli and Palestinian (West Bank) partnerships
One grant is reserved for CBOs working with African Refugee Asylum Seekers in Israel.
Available funds are a maximum of $ 30,000 (can be less and we welcome that) per year per CBO
for three years.
Due date for preliminary maximum 2 page proposal is July 15
We are interested in proposals that will result in:
- Documented improved health status of the population in the context of empowerment of
individuals and communities - Increased awareness, on the part of policymakers and other interested parties, of the obstacles
to improvement in the health of marginalized populations.
Introduction:
Health is influenced by a wide range of factors, many of which can fall outside the health care
sector. These determinants of health include, for example, the characteristics of how people live,
work, learn, and play. The health care system generally functions to provide care to those who
have become sick. Yet it is where people live, learn, work, play and worship that most influences their opportunities and chances for being healthy. Layered on top of these issues which impact individuals in every country in the world are issues specific to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza which simply put the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. There are also different but still challenging issues for Palestinians living in Israel.
The challenge that we have as individuals or as CBOs is to connect improvement in health status
occurring at the community level to changes in the healthcare system. Examples include:
- Addressing chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes by improving the availability
and safety of physical activity environments (e.g., parks, sidewalks). - Addressing violence, against women, by implementing prevention programs and
practices for women. - Addressing violence between Israelis and Palestinians by funding and providing
technical advice to organizations that both seek to improve the health of the particular
group they serve while simultaneously trying to reach across the divides and at least
encouraging Palestinian groups to work with each other.
To be successful in improving health these social determinants of health must be addressed by us
as individuals, by CBOs and by the health care system.
Grant Application Process
There are 2 phases to the application process:
- Preliminary proposal of no more than two pages – this is due July 15 but we welcome the
two pages as soon as you are ready. - A full proposal from those organizations Healing Across the Divides identifies with an expressed interest. The full proposal will be due 4 weeks later and funding will start September 10.
Application Guidelines:
Healing Across the Divides will provide organizational consulting to CBOs applying for funds
and facilitate meetings between all organizations receiving funds
Healing Across the Divides will provide grant money that may be supplemented with money
from other foundations. In general, Healing Across the Divides does not give grants to
organizations already receiving funds from other foundations on the same exact topic.
Lengths of Grants: All grants are for a minimum of three years, provided satisfactory progress is
evidenced during each time period. However, each grant needs to be renewed on an annual basis
and must demonstrate the results of a formal rapid cycle evaluation and continuous cycle
improvement process.
About the programs we are looking for:
Healing Across the Divides believes that in general year 1 should concentrate on a pilot around
an innovative model, year 2 focusing on the dissemination of the model improved by the lessons
learned from year 2 and year 3 around inter-sectoral partnership with institutions with the aim
that other organizations consider adopting the model.
Healing Across The Divides expects the program funded to be evaluated in a proper way that will
enable, most importantly, the organization both funders and the organization to learn from it,
leading eventually to an article to be published for the good of the community. We are committed
to adequately funding an appropriate evaluation
Sum requested: Strongly recommend that the funds requested not be more than 1/4 of the total
year’s organization’s budget and 1/2 of the sum needed for the project itself.
Grant Review Process: All Grant Applications must be reviewed by the Healing Across the
Divides board of directors and program advisory committee.
Geographic Distribution of Grants: Grants are only given to organizations in Israel and
Palestine.
Timing of fund distribution: Forty percent of the grant will be funded on receipt of a signed
agreement by all parties. Another twenty percent will be given after a six month evaluation
approved by the funder. The remainder will be given after the first half of each year upon receipt
of ongoing evaluation and clarification if requested by the funder.
Details of Application Guidelines: in English
There is a two step application process:
Step One: Expression of interest application (two pages) should be sent by July 15. The max two
page expression of interest should include:
- A summary of your organization’s mission (2 – 3 sentences)
- A one-paragraph summary of the project for which you are seeking funding specifically
identifying the social determinant(s) of health that your project will be addressing - A one paragraph description of how your organization works to develop and enhance the
health of underserved and/or marginalized individuals. What is your experience in this
area? Note your experience does not have to specifically be in the health field. But you
must have some experience working to build community strength broadly defined. - Number of people to be served by project and overall estimated cost of the project
- A one paragraph summary of your approach to project evaluation and background in this
area. - Appendices can be included documenting organizational strengths in the above areas.
Note the entire Letter of Intent must be no more than 2 pages. Material included in the
appendices should be extremely relevant and illustrate your organizational strengths,
registration in Israel and Palestine, annual reports.
Step Two: If selected, a full proposal will be requested upon orientation of the possible grantees and with the support of our representative in the field.
For more information or for any questions please contact: Nehad Fattah (West Bank and Gaza) at
[email protected] or Veronica Vigdorchik [email protected].
