Women, Armed Conflict, Loss and Support: From Victims to Activists

Abstract

Many women in the West Bank face the risk of experiencing events of loss of their husbands, youngsters, and relatives through death, imprisonment, or deportation due to Israeli control. The current study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of “from a bereaved woman to another” approach. The method means to empower Palestinian women through mutual psycho-social support conducted under the observation of trained facilitators, training in turn the bereaved women themselves. In this initiative, 203 bereaved women, who participated in a program, from three West Bank territories (Bethlehem, Nablus and Jenin), ranged in age from 31 to over 50 years. The women replied to pre-intervention and post-intervention measures of attitudes towards inter-personal communication skills, the loss-related psychological symptoms, and the women's perception to social support. The results of the study confirmed a statistically significant increase in women’s communication abilities, a decrease in experiencing loss-related symptoms, and more positive awareness to social support.

Keywords: Bereaved women, armed conflict, loss, psycho-social support.