Arfaj (عرفج‎‎)

Arfaj (عرفج‎‎): Empowering Women in and for Transition

Arfaj is a native plant of the Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian desert that blooms every April. Arfaj symbolises strength, beauty and survival.

Arfaj is a program, in cooperation with the Philippines Embassy of Kuwait, to empower women currently staying in the shelter and are waiting to be repatriated. Many of these women have gone through difficult times and are on the process of returning home.

To empower them, we, together with the group of women co-design a program where they can learn the skills that will help them the most to get through once they are back in their home country. Also, the shelter hosts children that are there for different reasons. To provide them with time and activities that children deserve, we created classes for them to help them cope with their current situations and opportunities to be active and creative during these hard times.

Some of the activities that take place within this program include, art therapy, learning how to write CVs, basic accounting and learning how to search the internet and use email.