שתיל - שירותי תמיכה וייעוץ לקידום שינוי חברתי

At the age of 11, Miriam Yosef left home and began the treacherous trek to Sudan in order to get to the land of her dreams. In the refugee camps, she watched her close friend, Tezeta, perish from malnutrition. Although she made it to Israel, young Miriam was separated from her parents for nine long and lonely years.

"As children, we had to see things we shouldn't have seen," says Miriam. She went on to feel things no woman should have to feel: she married a man who abused her.

"When I look back, I think, How did I cope?" Miriam asks. "It's a miracle. I tell my kids, It's possible to overcome every obstacle that we meet on our path. I've always had to fight and I survived. And now I fight for others."

Like many abused women, Miriam stayed in a bad marriage for years. "But now that's behind me," she says with finality. Miriam was helped by women's organizations and she found herself wanting to give back.

Along with other Ethiopian women activists and potential activists, Miriam attended Ethiopian women's empowerment workshops led by Shatil. "With Shatil's help, we tried to advance women's issues like rights, occupation, parenting," says Miriam. "Until the day one of our friends was killed by her husband. That's when we decided the issue we have to work on is family violence and we founded Yachdav - for the Prevention of Violence in the Ethiopian Family, a coalition of women activists from the Ethiopian community. With Shatil's support, we have advanced many processes. Shatil gives us guidance, consulting and a coordinator. It gives us knowledge and tools: how do we influence the decision makers? How do we express problems to Knesset members?"

Today, Miriam is one of the Shatil-led Coalition's most active members and participates in its advocacy sub group which has succeeded in getting the issue on the government's agenda. The Coalition has also succeeded in raising awareness of the problem in the Ethiopian and general communities and has gotten the government and other bodies to allocate resources to solving the problem at its roots. Miriam has three daughters, ages 11, 12 and 16. She is social worker at the Center for the Prevention of Family Violence in Haifa and leads parenting groups.

"Shatil," she says, "gives us the belief in our own ability to make change."