Volume 8, Issue 7 / Sivan 5765 / July 2005
Arad Women's Forum - All For One and One For All
The Arad Women's Forum, "All As One", was founded by Avital Argaman
Living in the same community for twenty-six years, most assume that people grow together and neighbors become friends. When Avital looked around her community three years ago she saw people whose names she did not even know and vice-versa, "How can we (Israel) even talk about peace, when we are not even talking to each other?" She saw women in economic and social distress and she decided it was about time that someone started talking.
Avital's fighting spirit came from hardships she herself faced during her marriage, and even after she divorced her husband. It was a whole new world for her and her children -- to struggle just to provide life's necessities, "Before I divorced I had everything that money could buy; after I am just surviving." Nevertheless, she does not regret her decision to leave her husband, stating that she preferred a life of survival and freedom to that of comfort and melancholy. Seeing other women in her community with similar situations to her own, she began drawing from her own experiences to help them.
Avital started organizing the women in her community, creating makeshift meetings in her home where she imparted her knowledge of business pared with self-esteem guidance. The central idea Avital tried to get across to these women was that the skills that their mothers passed down to them are not worthless and neither are they. A snowball effect occurred and what started out as a few women discussing how to better their lives has exploded to approximately eighty regular meeting goers. Furthermore, at every meeting there are always new individuals who are brought in by their friends.
It is Avital's vision to have all the women of the community to be united, and she does not turn away any woman that wishes to attend. Women from all walks of Israeli society partake; Arab, Bedouin, Ethiopian; new and old immigrants; Christian, Jewish, Muslim; the newborn to the senior citizen; everyone as one. "We accept the woman as she is." The two most important messages that are communicated in the group is to hold your head high and have respect for yourself. One way to achieve this is through marketing the knowledge of women.
The All As One program, as it is now called, has branched out from meetings to teaching the women each others skills. The groups meet to learn and teach classes on embroidery, cooking, and wood work, to name a few. "A woman wants to work and to sell what she does, living honestly." The group also puts on a market or "shuk" every month to sell the wares that they have made. Whatever the needs of the individual woman are, social or economic, the group works to accommodate her. Avital has a grander plan for all of them, what she likes to call the "occupational nursery."
The facility would incorporated and house every aspect of the program so that the participants could have one central location. Marketable artistic skills would be taught such as: cooking/catering, sewing/seamstress, jewelry/jewelry maker, and ceramics/potter. In the middle of the building Avital envisions a gallery where the items could be sold, providing further work for the women. Furthermore, there would be instructional classes on other areas of service skills such as a domestic aide. There would be classes on self-help, self-respect, and self-maintenance. One of the most exciting elements would be a center for women looking for work and resources on how to start a business. Listening to Avital's dream you can not only picture the building, but hear the voices of the women.
Getting funding for the program has been a very hard, upward battle. Avital herself is still a volunteer, and two years ago she quit her job to devote all of her energy to the project, "I am helping them and laughing about myself...I find myself paying for a taxi to the office and I don't have money to get home. I am facing difficulties everyday and every hour, but I know it will be ok." In the beginning friends helped her, and still do, to pay for the program's needs. Funding currently is provided in part by the Partnership 2000 Project of the Jewish Agency, Arad Municipality - Social Services Department, Arad - Tamar Economic Development Unit, and Shatil. Now the biggest goal for Avital is working to get the funding to raise the walls of the "occupational nursery" on the foundations of the program that she has laid.
Click here to read more about Jewish Agency Women's Forums.
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