Woman to Woman

Woman to Woman (in Hebrew: isha le-isha) is a shelter for battered women and their children located in Jerusalem. The Shelter provides immediate practical aid and emotional counselling for battered women and children at risk in a caring and supportive environment. Beyond providing immediate refuge and practical assistance – food, clothing and accommodation, child care, health care – Woman to Woman’s Shelter offers a safe environment in which women who have been the victims of abuse can regain a measure of control over their lives. The Shelter can house up to 12 women and some 25 children at any given time. About 40 women and 75 children pass through its doors every year, staying for an average of 4months. To ensure that their safety is not compromised, the Shelter’s residents must be referred to us by social welfare authorities, hospitals, emergency centers and the police. They come from all over the country; they are as young as 18 or as old as 70 years, alone or accompanied by their children. They are religious and secular Jews, Christian and Muslim Arabs, new immigrants and veteran Israelis, all sharing a history of domestic violence and repression. Our primary goal is to help them try to fill emotional voids, reassemble their lives and leave the cycle of violence behind them. The basic framework to achieve this goal is a personally adapted “empowerment program” combining group and individual counselling to increase self-esteem, improve life skills and work proficiency, enhance parenting, and encourage self-sufficiency. Experienced professional staffers are joined by dedicated volunteers who contribute their time and talents to enriching the residents’ stay at the Shelter. The Children’s Center within the Shelter is open year round for the children of all ages who accompany their mothers to the Shelter. These youngsters, who have lived all their short lives in the shadow of violence and terror, have not been prepared in advance for the sudden uprooting from their familiar surroundings and are frightened, confused and vulnerable. For them, the reassuring atmosphere of this unique facility provides a nurturing, educational and therapeutic framework. Woman to Woman opened the on-site Children’s Center almost immediately after the Shelter itself was founded. Every year some 75 children – infants through adolescents – make use of the Center, which is open every day from 8 in the morning until 6 in the evening, staffed by a professional team of counsellors and educators. The children are divided into three age groups (0-3; 3-6; and 6+). Upon arrival at the Shelter, every child is assessed and an individual program is developed for him or her. Emphasis is placed on providing appropriate channels for expressing anger, fear and frustration. Whenever possible, help with schoolwork is provided to help the children reach the standard of their peers. By fostering the children’s self-esteem, we seek to help them cope with the trauma of the past as they turn to a better future. The volunteers will be placed to work with the children alongside the staff of the Children's Center.