The year 2008 could be described as the “year of institutionalization” of Muntada, following the “declaration & establishment year” in 2007. In 2007, Muntada’s vision was formulated and the basic principles and strategies for its community work and professional development were laid out. As a result, it gained wide recognition from the Palestinian society, with many of its segments, for its role in sexuality education. In 2008, these principles and vision were put to test in the field, where their effectiveness and realistic applicability were tried in community work. In addition, 2008 was an opportunity to develop human capacity and enrich the skills and experiences of Muntada’s staff and volunteers to enable reaching wider sectors of society in the most professional manner.


Training workshop in al-Lyd School - December 2008

The official approval of the Ministry of Education (MOE) certifying Muntada to conduct sexuality education training in all Palestinian schools in Israel was a crucial step towards greater recognition of Muntada’s professional status and capabilities the main reference in sexual health and education in Palestinian society. This recognition was translated on the ground through several requests from the MOE to conduct professional training courses for educational staff at several locations.

In this regard, ten MOE-sponsored training workshops were conducted during 2008, in addition to other training sessions at private schools in Jerusalem. (Please refer to the attached table).

On the other hand, Muntada faced substantial challenges in 2008: societal, professional and financial. At the level of society, Muntada played a key role in enhancing the understanding of sexuality concepts. Specifically, it helped transform them from the “unspoken” or “taboo” category to social acceptance and recognition, through awareness, reflection and collective action aimed at finding context-sensitive solutions to prevalent problems, particularly among youth, where the gap between parents and their children is the greatest. In Jerusalem, as well as in the Center and Muthalath regions, for instance, Muntada worked on raising sexuality awareness with several schools (mostly private), involving parents, students and educators.

At a professional level, with the increased social recognition of the need for sexuality education and health programs, Muntada’s responsibility to enhance and develop its human resources and professional capacity to respond to the need has grown substantially.

Muntada’s achievements could be summarized by the following:

Training courses on sexuality for educators : 14 courses, 176 professional graduates;

Building of infrastructure for school-based sexuality education programs in many schools in Muthalath area, Galilee and in the Center. In some schools, Muntada provides ongoing professional support and supervision;

Working with groups of parents : 25 workshops were conducted where 255 parents participated;

Working directly with students: 1074 school students, from various grades, participated in tens of workshops conducted at 36 Arab schools;

Continuous professional training and supervision for Muntada’s facilitators and volunteers;

Networking and cooperation with other NGOs and GOs who have similar agendas and goals;

Launching of Muntada’s website and making it available to the use of Palestinians and Arabs at large;