SAVE Yemen Activities
What Does the Future Hold for Yemeni Women? Interview with Nadia Al-Saakaf, Editor in Chief of Yemen Times
Sana'a, October 2011
Dr. Edit Schlaffer recently conducted an interview with Nadia Al-Saakaf, Editor in Chief at Yemen Times, who is closely following the turbulent developments in Sana'a. The full interview can be found on our blog.
STOP Violence! Hotline
Women without Borders / SAVE-Sisters Against Violent Extremism will partner with local experts in Sana’a, Yemen, to launch the country’s first anonymous telephone hotline as a resource for victims of violence and extremism or fanaticism. The hotoline will provide counseling and advice to callers who are concerned that their family or community members may be engaging in violent extremist activities. This hotline will allow individuals throughout Yemen to anonymously seek help, support, counseling, and answers from a group of professional psychologists and psychiatrists for free. For more information on this project, click here.
First SAVE Yemen Mothers Group Meeting
Sana'a, June 2010
The first Mothers for change! meeting took place at Raba'a school, involving 10 women. SAVE Yemen coordinators who received training at the Train the Trainers workshop in Austria, May 2010, taught these mothers how to meet other mothers and create a support network. The trainees were very enthusiastic, generating many ideas on how to target a wider audience, such as writing a play to be acted out by students dealing with the dangers of violent extremism. Following this meeting, each woman agreed to sensitize 8 more women to the subjects and knowledge that she had gained during the meeting. Members also agreed to meet regularly to discuss progress.
Me Against Violent Extremism
Sana'a, June 2010
A group of students aged between 12 and 16 took part in an artistic workshop in which they were encouraged to creatively express their experiences of and opinions about the fight against extremism. Seventeen children attended, and produced spectacular results.
Hope, Action, Perseverance : A Fact-finding mission
Sana'a, October-November 2009
The SAVE team travelled to Sana’a, Yemen, in late 2009 to gain in-depth information about women and their views on extremism in Sana'a and to establish a SAVE Yemen chapter. Despite increasing media coverage that portrays Yemen as a training ground for terrorist activity and as a state on the brink of collapse, Dr. Edit Schlaffer and her team found a vibrant civil society being driven forward by educated and open women. SAVE brought together a group of engaged women from women’s and human rights’ groups, academic institutions, the press, and international institutions to found SAVE Yemen. Over the course of a series of meetings, the women shared their stories, debated, and brainstormed ideas for a needs-based project and regular SAVE meetings. They agreed to particularly target mothers as potential alarm-sounders when their children travel down the wrong path.
The SAVE team also presented the SAVE film “Journeys through Darkness” on the occasion of the SAVE press conference hosted by the Media Women’s Forum (MWF). The audience felt that their own experiences and the reality of extremism in Yemen were reflected in the film. Both English-language and Arabic media extensively covered the event, highlighting local interest in the role of women in the international security arena. To read the MWF press release about this event (in Arabic), please click here.
A number of successful meetings with government ministers, with a forward-thinking girls’ school that serves as a model of holistic education, and with individuals committed to creating change despite the odds have shown that Yemen is hopeful that a peaceful and inclusive community is possible and desirable. Women’s participation is critical to moving forward, and Yemen’s leading female voices must be shared to encourage others to speak up against violent extremism.
Students of a girls´ school in Sana´a
The streets of Sana´a
Edit Schlaffer at a meeting with the Minister for Endowment and Guidance, Dr. al Hitar
The SAVE Yemen group