Bozour Theatre Association for Culture and Arts has launched the “Mujawarah for People” initiative in the Central Governorate of the Gaza Strip.
The initiative aims to establish a safe community cultural space where theatre, the arts, and storytelling are used to strengthen community participation, enable people to express their lived experiences and concerns, and transform individual stories into shared narratives that inspire creative artistic work and community-led initiatives.
The launch event opened with welcoming remarks by Wisam Al-Dirawi, Executive Director of Bozour Theatre Association, who highlighted the importance of creating an open and inclusive space that responds to the needs of the community and provides people from different backgrounds with opportunities to meet, express themselves, and participate. She also emphasised the role of theatre and the arts in fostering dialogue, trust, and social cohesion.
The community space in Deir Al-Balah will support recovery, strengthen social cohesion, encourage civic participation, and help transform dialogue into locally led action. The initiative will work with five community groups representing women, young people, persons with disabilities, parents, and adolescents. Participants will draw on their own lived experiences to develop five creative productions through theatre, storytelling, and Hakawati performances. These productions will then be presented to both public audiences and relevant stakeholders, creating opportunities for dialogue and collective reflection before progressing to community reflection workshops that will transform ideas and proposed solutions into five community-led initiatives implemented by the participants themselves.
The event also featured a Hakawati performance entitled Manal at the Mujawarah, demonstrating the power of storytelling to transform personal experiences into spaces for dialogue and connection, in addition to delivering a musical performance, highlighting the role of music and the arts in supporting recovery and strengthening community cohesion.
Participants concluded the event by contributing to an interactive mural entitled “What Will Happen at the Mujawarah?”, where they shared their aspirations and ideas for the future activities and role of the new community space.
The “Mujawarah for People” initiative represents a community space built with people rather than for them. It seeks to bring people’s voices and lived experiences back to the stage, using theatre and the arts as tools for expression, dialogue, participation, and community action.
This initiative is supported by the United Nations Development Programme/Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (PAPP) as part of programming to support local governance.
