These are dramatic times for organizations working to promote women’s health. As part of the global network of OUR BODIES OURSELVES, Women and Their Bodies (WTB) in Israel  promotes physical, emotional and sexual health for both women and girls. We are therefore especially encouraged by the recent turn of events - the renunciation and expulsion of sexual offenders and the courageous #metoo campaign that followed.

Whether you are already a friend of WTB or are just being introduced to our work, we invite you to join us in creating change in the realm of women’s health in Israel.  Our organization aims to promote the health and well-being of women and girls in Israel by introducing the tools that can inform and improve the choices they make. Following is a taste of WTB’s recent work.

Introducing the option of sexual autonomy

Public discourse about sexual harassment is crucial. WTB’s added value lies in reminding women of every age that sex should be first and foremost wonderful, empowering and pleasurable - not dangerous. We promote healthy sexuality by openly discussing the warning signs of abusive relationships with women and girls and encouraging them to recognize their own emotional and sexual needs. Defining patterns of healthy relationships in turn facilitates women’s ability to develop an autonomous, self-preserving voice in romantic and sexual encounters. A recent workshop we held was dedicated to the topic of contraception for young women. The group produced a fantastic clip about the variety of contraceptive options available, as well as a similarly useful leaflet (we apologize for the Hebrew only voiceover, we hope to find the resources to translate more of our materials very soon).

We are also part of a national taskforce working to prevent sexual harassment of girls, and provide training for educators working with girls on how to foster healthy sexuality.

Older women have sex too!

We are proud to present the first installment of our web series presenting older women’s views on life, health and sexuality. The video follows a three-month workshop on these topics. We invite you to take a few minutes to listen to these women’s pearls of wisdom and candor.

Over the past two years we have been working with older women from every sector of Israeli society, offering a chance for them to share their stories. We have worked with Jewish women who immigrated to Israel from Morocco and were married off at age 12, to Christian and Muslim women from East Jerusalem who spoke vividly about sex, and Ultra-Orthodox women who rarely discuss these topics at all. We are gathering information from these women about access to and quality of health services provided to them, and will present them to the Israeli Ministry of Health.

We hope to continue expanding the scope of this project, which is generously supported by the Migdal Insurance Company, to additional populations and communities in peripheral areas across the country.

We don’t want to (meno)pause!

At Women and Their Bodies we are always trying to extend our impact. Alongside our workshops, which we know have touched the lives of thousands of women throughout Israel already, we also push for policy change.  We recently wrote a position paper presented to the Knesset Committee on Medications in the National Healthcare Basket. The paper highlights two of the voids in the Healthcare Basket provided to Israeli citizens, in the areas of contraceptives, and the needs of women in their menopause years, and advocates filling them.

Research, writing and advocating require designated resources:

Impact Groups

One of our original contributions is our Impact Groups workshop model. We bring together women who share a health issue (such as migraines, or menopause) and offer them an opportunity to learn from each other and from experts in the field, and then take action around this issue and become health leaders in their communities. The clips and brochure described above are examples of the effective results of such workshops.

This is just a taste of everything we are doing at Women and their Bodies. As you can see, we are quite busy and there is always more to be done. But to do that, we need your help. If you would like to learn more about our activities or to take part in making them a success – please let us know. If you have any suggestions or comments please write to us, at:  info@wtb.org.il

Financial contributions of any size are greatly appreciated. You can also help by passing this newsletter on to others you think would be interested in our work.

Thank you so much for your support and from all of us at Women and their Bodies, Happy Holidays!