"Women and their Bodies" is a non-profit organization working to promote comprehensive social change in the perceptions of Israeli women and girls regarding their health.
Established in 2005, the organization has hundreds of professional volunteers from the fields of medicine, education, and healthcare. WTB is a women’s organization that works for women, their health and quality of life, by raising awareness for women’s health rights, and the basic belief that women are the source of authority on their own bodies.
Our approach is based on the principles of the World Health Organization (WHO), which defines health as a combination of social, emotional, social, and financial aspects that influence mental and physical wellness, and quality of life.
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.”
The World health organization.
Vision
Israeli women are entitled to better health care, and the opportunity to learn about their bodies and discover their sexuality. We are leading comprehensive social change by creating a body of knowledge and working in the field, aiming to promote significant change in the perceptions of women and girls regarding their health and improve their ability to make informed use of available healthcare services.
Goals
- Promote health issues of women and young girls in a wider view as affected by social, economic, physical, sexual, and emotional aspects.
- Raise the awareness of women and girls regarding their rights in all aspects of their bodies, sexuality, and health, and enable educated use of available health services.
- Raise the awareness of medical professionals, women, and girls to a holistic approach that includes cultural sensitivity to women’s health.
- Produce and distribute information about women’s health issues (in Hebrew and Arabic), ensuring that it will be accessible to and understood by every woman and girl in Israel.
- Create an open platform for women and girls from different social groups, ages, and status for discussion and activities on health, sexuality, and their bodies.
Main Activities
1
Writing, publishing, and distributing information on women and girls’ health, bodies, and sexuality
WTB has published and written three books: Women and their Bodies (published by Modan), the book in Arabic ‘المرأة وكيانها’ , two books on topics related to women’s health, bodies, and sexuality, clearly written and incorporating information from conventional and complementary medicine, excerpts from interviews with women, as well as the social, political, and financial aspects of these issues. The information offers a unique reading experience that raises awareness and encourages critical thinking. The book is an adaptation of the well-known American book Our Bodies, Ourselves, adapted to Israeli society and institutions. In addition, a children’s book called ‘Speak Out, Sky!’ deals with sexual molestation of preschool children.
The organization writes and publishes content and brochures and maintains an online Knowledge Center on the wider aspects of women’s health and sexuality through publications, discussion and references. The information is available in Hebrew, English, and Arabic.
2
Workshops and group activities for women and girls and for education and healthcare professionals
The organization has 34 facilitators who speak Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and Amharic. They provide women and young girls throughout Israel with important information that will help them make informed decisions about their health. The work process includes empowering women in diverse topics related to health and sexuality: body image, gender identification and sexual preference, nutrition and eating disorders, anatomy and menstruation, healthy sexuality and relationships, contraception and safe sex, main issues of women’s health in Israel, femininity and sexuality, mid-life and menopause, old age, rights in the healthcare system, and more.
3
Women and their Bodies Adolescent Girls Expertise (AGE) Center
We offer a wide body of information under one roof on issues of body image, health and sexuality for adolescent girls in Israel. We’re working to build a professional community committed to creating change, raise awareness and offer an expansive base of theoretical and experience-based knowledge for women in health-related professions, parents, and young girls. To this end we hold workshops and knowledge groups, and activities for adolescent girls and their parents, and for health care professionals, as well as workshops designed for teenage girls in general and bat-mitzva age girls (12) and their mothers.
4
Policy changes and public activity
Women and their Bodies works to achieve policy changes in areas related to women’s health, especially where there is a lack of knowledge, resources, and public infrastructure. We aim to establish a lobby for women’s health and to cooperate with women’s organizations to promote social change in areas of women’s health, sexuality, and bodies, and specifically awareness of women as patients in the healthcare system; in gynecological exams, the experience and needs of women in childbirth, midlife and menopausal women, treatment for older women, medical issues that affect women, and more.
Women and their Bodies works in cooperation with the following forums:
- Forum for a national plan to prevent sexual molestation of young girls – JDC-Ashalim
- Forum to expand accessibility to contraception
- Forum of organizations on the topic of abortion
- Ministry of Health forum of professional consultants for decreasing inequality
- Ministry of Education inter-sectoral forum for promotion of health
- Ministry of Health forum of professionals to decrease health inequality
