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Mobility Project—Women Demand Mobility

The village of Mrar in the Galilee is similar to many Arab villages where women`s mobility and freedom of movement are severely limited due to social customs and lack of public infrastructure. Since the majority of the women do not have a driver’s license and there is no internal public transportation of any kind within this large, sprawling village of 18,000 inhabitants, the women are dependent on members of their family who can drive, such as their husbands, brothers and fathers. The mobility project was conceived by a group of women who were fed up with finding ways to get to their weekly Kayan meetings. A program was conceived and created by a group of women who were graduates of a series of Kayan courses in personal and community empowerment and activism. Through the “Women Demand Mobility” project, women worked with an urban planner and lobbied for internal public transportation. With the mentoring of Kayan, the women worked with local authorities to bring public transportation to the village of Mrar and by January 2005 they succeeded in installing a bus line inside the community. Since then, this local project has been a model for other towns and villages suffering from the same problem. As an outcome of this project, the Ministry of Transport initiated the planning and installing of public transportation in the following villages and towns: Sakhnin, Arabe, Dei Hanna, Kufr Kare, Ara-Arrara, Baqael, Garbia, and Oum Alfahum. The first phase of planning was initiated in March of 2008 and is based on the participation of the community.

“Tell me how you are mobile and I will tell you who you are…” (a participant in the group)

For further information please contact Kayan by mail or phone.