Making it happen: the programme. Breaking the isolation.

Terrorism in Algeria has made women a primary target; this has only served to make the women there more determined to change their status, a process that began with independence in 1960. During preparations for the Fourth UN Conference in Beijing, Algerian women began networking with women from Tunisia and Morocco. Since then, Nadia Ait Zai, a lawyer and a member of the Collectif, at the invitation of the Oxfam Beirut Office, met with her Lebanese counterparts; the women shared experiences and developed strategies for working together. Nadia met with Sukaynah Salameh, the director of the Vocational Training Association centers in refugee camps in Beirut (which she visited); a group of grassroots women organized by the Youth Social League; and a group of disabled women. The meeting at the National Association for the Rights of Disabled Persons focused on family laws, which rule the lives of women. Nadia described efforts by the Collectif to bring about an egalitarian civil law.