Building Global and Local Awareness

Dedicated to building awareness, as it is the first stepping stone in advocacy to both garner interest and investment from the international world and ensure appropriate strategies are enacted at the local level, Karama promotes and supports activities that activate local and global communities and foster knowledge sharing for and by women. The resulting information exchange works in several directions: to inform Karama’s regional partners regarding methods of advocacy and the realities of violence against women, to inform key stakeholders throughout its international network of planned activities and events, related results, and the nature of the challenge to end violence against women in the Arab region, and finally, to inspire members of the initiative through news of progress and success, and reports of solidarity.

Key programs include:

•    Community-based awareness campaigns such as Karama Day and 16 Days of Violence
•    Film screenings including a 2009 public event showing Pray the Devil Back to Hell
•    Reporting and disseminating to Karama networks to share the results of participation in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID); building on the successes and learning from the failures in the region; and sharing recent research and regional trends in a particular advocacy area, such as Karama’s Report on Refugee and Stateless Women
•    Presence at international and regional conferences such as CSW and AWID
•    Supporting grassroots and local action plans to inform different target groups regarding the nature and impact of violence against women and of related misconceptions, through the use of different media including documentary film and through media trainings