The Bahrain Women's Union (BWU) has joined forces with 10 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in running a project to train, educate and empower thousands of people living in the kingdom's villages.

The project, which will help needy families and people with special needs and combat key issues such as child abuse, was made possible by a $30,000 grant from US-based Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), according to a report in the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

"The big picture here is to train, educate and empower citizens across the kingdom especially in the villages," said BWU president and project head Mariam Al Rowaie.

"These societies are working on different projects which include anti-abuse campaigns, IT workshops and women empowerment programmes."

Al Rowaie was speaking during a Press conference at the BWU headquarters in Tubli yesterday attended by representatives from 10 societies that will benefit.

The projects will run for three years and be supervised by the BWU to ensure all funds are spent wisely.

"The teams will have to show results, which makes them eligible to receive full grants," said Al Rowaie. "This project aims to bring together NGOs at grass roots level to promote democracy and equality."

Among the beneficiaries will be Ali Shakhoori, 25, whose proposal includes setting up an online community for close to 4,000 residents in Malkiya.

He explained it would give them a chance to keep abreast of what was happening in their village at just the click of a mouse and also directly forward complaints to relevant authorities.

"I am in the process of registering the domain name for the interactive site," said the Bahraini.

Another project to be run by Sayed Radhi Saeed, 50, will involve holding IT workshops in several villages.

"We will have residents from the area actually training youth and others on latest software," said the Karbabad resident. "So far we have 14 experts who will help train Karbabad residents on Adobe Flash, Photoshop and other IT programmes."

Bahraini Fakhreya Shubber's project includes conducting anti-child abuse campaigns across the country.

"We will be training about 310 children through these workshops and also aim to collect statistics that help to reflect this growing problem in our society," he said.

Another of project aims to preserve Bahrain's culture. "(We sell) cultural products to preserve Bahrain and its culture," said Bahraini Mary Alsetrawhey, who is running Palm Products Projects.

"It is because of the importance of using our local products to remember the heritage of Bahrain," she said. "It is very important to receive this grant to make sure that Bahraini culture is not forgotten." – TradeArabia News Service