Having the center located in Afula, made it accessible to hundreds of people in Afula-Gilboa who wouldn’t be able to get help otherwise. The Afula branch works 24/7, raising the awareness to the subject of sexual violence and its prevention, and encouraging sexual abuse survivors to contact the center for support and consultation. In addition, the center facilitates an outreach training program within the region's educational, health, social services and criminal justice systems in both Arab and Jewish communities.

 

Unfortunately, the year 2020 was a year of crisis. 6,400 calls reached the center's hotline, at least 2,000 of them came from residents of Afula and the region, pointing a significant increase in applications from teenagers and professionals. At the same time the Afula branch continued its activity using Zoom and in-person encounters, when possible. 

 

A women support group for sexual violence victims has been carried out, new volunteers from the region has been recruited to provide assistance, meetings with about 2,000 young people in various educational frameworks and presentations were taking place by the center, who also continued, as much as possible, to provide training to professionals from the field.

 

Lately, following the COVID crisis and the increase of the need that arose from the field, the center has created a new lecture discussing "10 practical ways to prevent the next abuse", emphasizing the importance of information related to sexual violence. The lecture, enabling an open intergenerational conversation, aims to strengthen the local community and provide tools for dealing with emergencies and crises of sexual assault, and further prevent them from taking place. By now, this lecture was given to teenagers, parent, and professionals in several settlements and kibbutzim in the Afula-Gilboa region, and received positive feedback. A teenager from one of the kibbutzim says – "We are finally talking about the right things".