Miki discovered Givat Haviva and the Noa/Nuha Centre for women and gender studies after 16 years working as a social worker “ I enrolled in the very first Women in Community course at Givat Haviva back in 1999 after returning from the States where in the early 90’s gender and women psychology was the hot topic!” She took a semester in Women in  theThird World at Yale University while her husband was working there“ It made me open my house to women of all nationalities from all over the world and found it fascinating to hear all their stories related to gender”

Returning to Israel she clearly remembers the course that set her on this path to working more formally with women “The course at Givat Haviva started out as a mixed Arab Jewish group but separated into two groups mainly because of language. The Arab women then came from more traditional place and I think the gap between Jews and Arabs at this time was too deep” Nearly ten years on now all the groups are bi national and work well.

She enjoyed the course so much that she went on to study a masters in Women and Gender from Tel Aviv University. “I worked with adolescent groups with their mothers and used the medium of art to explore mother daughter relationships.” Miki explains. She then went on to open a community theatre and initiated a support group for women in her area “It was amazing to see these women coming each week voluntarily and to learn to discuss and trust the group.” After a few years all these women who had lacked self esteem and self knowledge gain enough from this support group to go off and find work. "The group was no longer needed t -they all were in full time work" she admits happily .Next she set up a community theatre project for Ethiopian women newly arrived in Israel and sabras ( children of Israelis)  The two groups of women had gender as the unifier but came from totally different cultures. Together they created plays about all subjects from marriage to death. “The women created a play about weddings and the Ethiopian women were amazed to hear of one Jewish woman’s childhood experiences of being primed for marriage through a special Passover ceremony. They never imagined this to happen in what they saw as a modern western culture." explained Mikka.

She now works with Jewish and Arab social workers as part of Givat Haviva programme in mental hospital work addressing women’s role in hospital life “The female hospital workers awareness of women’s roles at work had not really been explored fully” There is an eclectic mix of women from a variety of mental health backgrounds and cultures enrolled on this 2 year course conducted in Hebrew. “We discuss how they understand their job in the hospital aswell as how they relate to the patients. Aspects of culture and gender affect their work hugely. last week we discussed some women’s feelings towards being left alone with a male patient or an Arab worker having to nurse a Jewish patient"

She is also hoping next to explore and build a group with young Israeli women who have had the "muchilaras" experience - the trip to India or South America that is so common after the army. “It is often a really empowering trip where both men and women are liberated from all Israeli stereotypes and boundaries. When they return these are often forgotten and they return to their old ways!” Miki hope to do research into this area and to pilot this group looking at this life changing experience pushing boundaries and borders of gender.