Meeting Mona

I contacted Abdo (or our supervisor) at Al Shehab about two weeks ago to ask for a schedule of events that would take place in either Nasr City of Ezbet Haggana. He informed me that there would be a number of training sessions involving domestic violence issues and that there would be a Violence Against Women day in Ezbet Al Haggana. This past week my partner and I decided to attend one of the training sessions in the slum area. When we arrived however, we found that there wasn’t a training session taking place. Instead we were brought to a meeting room and introduced to Mona, the NGO’s in house psychologist. She appeared very young and I learned a while later that she was only twenty-eight. She seemed to be very experienced in the field of applied psychology as she gave women, couples and families in the area both private and group counseling sessions. Her main purpose is to support women or couples who are struggle with violence in the home. As a psychologist she mostly encourages women to express themselves in order to relieve stress. Her private sessions are conducted in a way that allow the women feel safe and to create a relationship with the psychologist. Mona also mentioned that she makes house visits for women who are not able or allowed to come to Al Shehab to meet with her. Most of the time she conducts these meetings when the husbands are not at home. We were told that some women are restricted my there husbands from leaving the house, others have disabilities and some simple do not wish to be stigmatized in society as seeking counseling is seen as taboo and often assumes insanity of the client. She specializes in helping women with depression and post-traumatic depression and also encourages residents of the community to see the importance of counseling and speaking about their issues rather than holding them in.
I asked Mona how Al Shehab would handle a situation if a woman has been critically injured in a domestic dispute. She said that there had been a doctor at the office however, he has moved on and no longer sees to the physical ailments of the people in the community. Having a doctor on call was convenient for community members because there are many times when the local clinic is overcrowded, understaffed and unequipped to deal with certain cases. Having a doctor on staff would also be useful in that this doctor as a member of the Al-shehab team would be sensitive to the situation and know how to handle it accordingly.
After our interview, my partner and I were planning to stay longer in Ezbet al Haggana to sit in on the training session. However, we were told that there was no such session as stated in the email and that we would not be allowed to sit in as it was actually one of the counseling sessions for couples. As we walked back to the entrance, I asked Mona what she thought about police involvement in the area. She said that police neglect Hezbet Al-Haggana because of the amount of drugs and thievery in the area. I found it ironic that I saw police in the area for things other than policing like getting their cars fixed for cheap. I hope to implement police involvement in the community and in domestic violence disputes as well as push for a new on-staff doctor into my proposal to help and protect victims of domestic violence.