Combating Gender Based Violence Program The Womens Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) was established by a small group of women in Jerusalem in 1991 as a Palestinian, independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation.  Its foundation came in a context whereby the emergence of professional Palestinian women#s organizations - which had proliferated in the late 1980s and early 1990#s as a result of the increasing involvement of women#s unions in the national struggle - was spurred by the outbreak of the first Intifada in late 1987.Made up of active members of the Palestinian women#s movement, including members of grassroots organizations, professional educators, and physicians, these women sought to avoid the marginalisation that other feminist movements in struggles for nationalliberation had suffered, and to prevent this from happening in Palestine. In this project WCLAC will be working with the Gaza based Women#s Affairs Center (WAC).Both are independent, non profit, non-governmental organisations dedicated to advocating forwomen#s rights and gender equality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Both WCLAC and WAC promote a gender-based, feminist vision which tackles both the obvious manifestations and the root causes of gender inequality. In an environment where violence and abuse of women is regularly overlooked, WCLAC provides a vital lifeline to women in need of help through legal aid, social counselling and protection. Through capacity building for grassroots organisations, awareness raising, training workshops and advocacy, both organisations work to challenge and change negative patriarchal attitudes that embed gender inequality in society. WCLAC operates solely in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and WAC in the Gaza Strip, and each organisation has developed a closeunderstanding of the needs of women in their respective areas ofthe oPt. More recently, the two organisations have begun to develop shared interests and expertise.
Both WAC and WCLAC - under thisjoint initiative together with Oxfam Novib- will pilot joint strategies to address problems and challenges common to both in addressing the roots causes of gender based violence (GBV).  Oxfam Novib will provide support to develop Monitoring Evaluation and Learning skills to facilitate application and institutionalisation of a MEL framework on intervention strategies seeking to change attitudes and behaviors. The aim of this project is to empower a generation of young people to be aware of women#s rights and able to claim them. It seeks to connect youth to athriving network of volunteers, professionals and grassroots organisations that are committed tobeing part of an energised, organised and informed movement for gender equality. Towards this end a network of 175(wclac) and 140 (wac) change agents of which 30%are men (volunteers in the west bank and university students in Gaza) is formed and has skills to advocate for women#s rights within Palestinian communities by reaching out to a minimum of 20,000 women (60%) and men (40%) in Gaza Strip and in the West Bank through awareness raising sessions, information materials, media initiatives and conference activities. The project will also include a pilot using radio fiction series of 30 episodes and other media products that will strengthen and complement existing strategies to combat violence against women and promote gender equality. The aim to reach large segments of the population in any one time and create spaces for conversations around gender based violence and gender norms (what does it mean to bea manand a woman in this society). Oxfam Novib is bringing both organisations in contact with Radio Nisaa - the only radio channel in Palestine dedicated to womens issues- which is going to telecast a 30 part series of radio fiction centred on women#s rights. This project will pilot the use of this radio fiction series to examine if inserting these series in the outreach work of both WAC and WCLAChas an added value and the kind of impact generated from using this tool. Towards this end key staff members ofbothorganisations will be trained  to use tools to measure attitude and behaviour change as a result of the radio faction series.