Initiate a partnership with local and/or regional media institutions to conduct a workshop for around 25-30 journalists on investigative reporting, while initiating a call for gender-sensitive investigative reporting. Please refer to activity identifier  LB-MOI-497-DMFA-ABAAD19-21 Media institutions/personnel As a part of ABAAD’s holistic mission, this project aims to not only provide media personnel with the right tools to cover gender-sensitive investigative reporting, but also provide the most appropriate and effective framework for this reporting. Namely, not only should journalists be given the right resources to adapt to difficult and emotionally stressful contexts, but should also be provided with the frameworks that present GBV and gendered issues in the most objective and contextualized manner. In August 2017, ABAAD signed an MOU with CILAT in order to address this gap. In October 2017, CILAT initiated contact with the Director Arab Regional Investigative Journalists for the sake of conducting the regional training. AREEJ showed high interest in this partnership. CILAT set the criteria for selecting the journalists who were to take part in the training. These were as follows: - Work in the media and journalistic field; - Have education background in media, communication or a related field - Show interest in investigative journalism - Demonstrate commitment in conducting investigative pieces on women and human rights related issues - Show sensitivity and awareness towards issues related to human and women’s rights Despite planning to launch a call for participants and disseminate it, organize trainings and contacting institutions and reporters to work on this issue, CILAT did not follow through with the MOU or the planned deliverables for reasons related to their internal processes. Subsequently, in order to mitigate this challenge ABAAD extended the scope of the contract with Fe-male to cover this activity in May 2018 ( Fe-male MOU and schedule # 2 annexed # 14) Moreover, Fe-male shared an announcement on their multiple social media platforms as well as sharing it with their mailing list as a call for participants. Many showed their interest and they received many applications, of which only 25 were chosen based on pre-selected requirement criteria. The workshop took place outside the capital and it went on for three consecutive days from the 21st until the 23rd of September 2018. Five professional trainers in the field were contracted Dr. Walid Saqaf (a specialist in the technology of media and journalism and a university instructor, who came all the way from Sweden), DR. Khouloud Khatib, Mrs. Rouba El Helou, Mrs. Madonna Khafaja and Ms. Youmna Fawaz, to deliver the workshop. The workshop was very intensive and interactive. Participants were engaged in hands-on activities as well as being involved in discussions away from lectures and mandating. The majority of the participants wished that they had more time for such workshops “Three days were not enough for the investigative journalism workshop, especially that we tackling issues of GBV. We need to dig deeper in this topic” as they considered the material important for their personal and professional growths in the field of gender and gender equality “I think that the toolkit is very rich in content and I’m looking forward to a TOT”- “I have been a journalist since a long while now, but I have never thought of using a gender-sensitive language while handling GBV cases. This workshop triggered the thought of it”; They also valued the knowledge provided to them since it was their first time to learn gender-sensitive reporting or he actual techniques of investigating. At the end of the workshop, it was announced that there will be technical support for the top four investigative topics. Fe-male received suggestions of 20 topics and Fe-Male along with the team of trainers selected them to produce investigative reports, following up with journalists who won the grant given by Fe-Male on gender-sensitive reporting, and the production of material for Sharika wa Laken. Each of the four selected journalist was assigned a mentor to follow up on producing complete gender-sensitive reports with accurate data and credible sources. The mentors, were chosen based on their availability, Mrs. Rouba El Helou, journalist Youmna Fawaz and lawyer Dr. Khoulod Al Khatib. The journalists were given a one month period to carry the task, and with the guidance of the mentors and Fe-Male they were provided with needed resources to fulfil this task (linking them with stakeholders, networking...). The publishing was dependent on ensuring that each report took its share of views and shares on the social media, and The links for the four (4) produced reports can be found below: Myra Abdallah: https://www.sharikawalaken.media/2019/02/19/الهوية-الجندرية-القاتلة-في-العراق/ Jana Dheiby: https://www.sharikawalaken.media/2019/02/25/قصّة-بنات-أبو-رجال-أبشع-أنواع-العنف-ال/ Zeinab Mohsen: https://www.sharikawalaken.media/2019/03/20/حياة-قيد-الإنتظار-قصّص-نساء-في-المحاكم/ Hala Al Turk: https://www.sharikawalaken.media/2019/03/26/أنا-أيضًا-صحافيات-يشهدن-ضدّ-أصحاب-نفوذ/ The topics tackled in these reports were all in the GBV discourse, mainly on trafficking, LGBTQI, harassment in media, personal status laws and child marriage. One of the topics, produced by the journalist Jana El Dheiby and mentored by reporter and journalist Youmna Fawaz, had the most views and shares during this period, which lead to provoking the Internal Security Forces to act and further investigate the case. The Minister, Ms. Raya Al Hassan, personally vowed to handle the case and called for immediate action to see the whereabouts of the case and punish all the responsible parties, and within ten days, action was indeed taken: The girl is now in the care of an NGO and the father is in the custody of the Security Forces.