Six years ago, Partnership 2000, Beit Shemesh/Adulam - South Africa-Washington, promoted a project for the empowerment of women in the region. It was felt that this issue had been sorely neglected and especially in view of the fact that women in the rural villages and Moshavim, did not have any political input in the policy making and that the status of women in the rural areas was far from satisfactory.

Partnership financed the project towards making women aware of their potential in their homes, communities and in society in general. The courses were well attended but the progress of getting more and more women in the outlying Moshavim and villages to become active, was slow, but promising.

After three years, in keeping with the policy of Partnership 2000, projects are expected to be self supporting, without further funding from the budget. The women were most distressed, because they had not reached a level of self sufficiency and were disappointed that everything would come to an end, especially when they realized how far they still had to go.

The South African Women's Zionist Council readily responded to a request to fund this project as an over and above project within the Partnership 2000 framework. They generously donated a large sum of money to be spent over three years for the women of Beit Shemesh and Adulam ( in the Mateh Yehuda Region). Each area set up a Forum for women and in Beit Shemesh, it was run by volunteers with the help of the Beit Shemesh Municipality and in the Adulam strip, it was coordinated through the Department of Social Services of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council.

The three years proved to be most beneficial and wonderful projects emerged such as Health for Women, courses for improving one's self image, encouragement to further studies, courses for para- professional training in detecting domestic violence, lectures on matters relating to family well being. As a result of these courses, the status of the women in their homes and communities improved and many of the participants, evolved as excellent caterers, specializing in ethnic foods. Courses in computer literacy were popular.

The WZC of SA , seeing the results of the first three years, responded in the same generous manner and agreed to fund the programme for a further three years.

The year 2003 was devoted mainly to encourage entrepreneurship for women in the region and a successful Forum for Business Women was organized by the Beit Shemesh volunteers. Several delegates attended an International Forum in Moscow. During November 2003, there was a Conference in Israel and five delegates from the region participated.

The year 2004 will also be devoted to business activities and other courses are being planned.

There was a Leadership Course for women in the Mateh Yehuda region, which was sponsored by WIZO Israel and the Jewish Agency, because of the progress having been made during the previous courses. This brought in additional funding and most of the participants were involved in our programme. This is geared towards political involvement, and as a result, there were several women in the region who took an active part in the local elections on January 27th, 2004.

On January 27th, 2004 a delegation of about 30 leaders of the South African Women's Zionist Council visited the region and they spent a day enjoying the programme especially prepared for them. They were hosted in Mateh Yehuda and were given extensive explanations on Partnership 2000, the projects that the women are involved in and they were given the opportunity to visit several projects.

The possibilities of becoming involved in the International Business Forum for Women was presented to them by a representative from the Department of People to People, Jewish Agency. This could be a window of opportunity, for the involvement of more young women, in South Africa and in Israel

In the evening they had the good fortune to talk to one of the activists on one of the Moshavim and got a feel of the atmosphere of local elections. They also participated in an ethnic cooking seminar at the Kyle David restaurant, which is situated in the Partnership 2000 wine route, and then on to an evening of ethnic music, dance, arts and crafts in Beit Shemesh. It was a most successful visit and the guests from South Africa were delighted to see how well the programme is progressing.

We look forward to further visits and interaction, which will strengthen the bonds between Israel and the Diaspora, while enhancing the status of women in Israel.

Shvat 5764 - February 2004