Vocational Training - Women Escaping Prostitution

This year began following ongoing protests and national upheaval with October 7th bringing us to the most painful national experience we have encountered in our lifetime. The current war cast tremendous uncertainty about Her Academy’s future and the prospects for our students and graduates. As we have unfortunately learned, such situations exacerbate the existing hardships for our students, most of whom are affected by complex PTSD. Women who have suffered violence, social exclusion and neglect are hurt even more and with greater intensity by such a shocking event. The horrors broadcast on the news, the air raid sirens, the uncertainty and the basic sense of insecurity trigger PTSD symptoms and make daily functioning difficult at the most basic levels.

Furthermore, in unstable and frightening days such as in wartime, our students’ ability to earn a living is directly and immediately affected as our students are afraid to leave the house, many of their workplaces are closed, and those that are employed are often paid by the hour. Compounding these challenges, our students lack an economic and social backbone and face all of these difficulties and hardships alone, and often while they are caring and responsible for their own young children.

Unfortunately, we do not see light at the end of the tunnel and know that the war will not end soon. The war has created extreme situations, such as the unprecedented direct Iranian attack in April. These are situations in which we must provide even further psychological and material support and assistance in finding a job and exercising rights, much more so than in routine times.

However, we know that the most significant factors for building our students’ sense of personal capacity are their studies, community and routine. Therefore, after we had to postpone the opening of the fall semester due to the horrific events of October 7th and the ensuing war, we returned to our regular routine as soon as possible. Today, more than ever, as a women’s organization we are working to gain recognition of and call for cessation of gender-based acts of violence and ensure women’s voices are heard at decision-making tables. We are at a critical point where our recovery as a society depends on how women's vulnerabilities are addressed.

Since the start of 2024, 153 students have studied at Her Academy, 72 of which are new students, in 38 courses in our Tel Aviv branch and 4 courses in our recently opened Haifa branch.

In 2022, we began a new partnership with the UNHCR to support students who are refugees, asylum seekers or stateless people. Since Israel's borders have been shut down to sex trafficking from western europe there has been a growth in internal trafficking, and the number of students referred to us from this population is growing.  In addition to our regular programming, we offer these students a study grant of 1000 NIS each and babysitting services so that they can attend classes. This semester, 20 asylum-seeking students are with us at Her Academy, of which 14 are new students.

We thank you for your support and look forward to sharing updates and successes with you.

Links:

• Her Academy's website