QUWA (قوة) is a community violence-prevention and collective healing program for displaced Arabic-speaking women. 

 The program is fueled by the idea that, for many people, healing and self-preservation involves a collective process. QUWA is power. QUWA is having the strength to be vulnerable, and the courage to be softened. QUWA emboldens us to resist and transform. QUWA is spirit. QUWA is sisterhood. QUWA is realizing the sources of strength and security that lay within each us. 

The QUWA model is heavily informed and inspired by survivors of various forms of trauma and violence--structural, interpersonal, and otherwise. The first QUWA Program took place in Istanbul, Turkey in Summer 2014 with 20 Syrian women who fled their country to escape armed violence. We are thankful to them, first and foremost, for trusting us enough to participate in the program’s pilot and for shaping it with their extensive insight and wisdom. Since then, the program has operated or presented on (for communities to implement) in different settings, including Brooklyn, Chicago, and Dearborn.

QUWA is led by Zeinab Khalil. To request QUWA in your community or organization, please contact us.