Introducing Eden CHW’s newest grant recipient, Eden Association, is breathing life and hope into girls who have lost the will to live.
F
or the past three decades, Eden Association has developed and conducted innovative programs, treating girls and young women of the Gaza envelope and Negev settlements suffering from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Specializing in complex post-trauma therapy and in creating trauma-oriented spaces, Eden’s residential trauma center currently treats 50 girls who were removed from their homes and suffer complex trauma. Today, residential trauma care is highly regarded in the field of out-of-home care in Israel, thanks to the Eden model for dialectic feminist therapy within a trauma-oriented framework. Eden established a school for at-risk youth, in collaboration with the Israeli Ministry of Education’s HILA program, within the residential trauma center to provide the individualized learning processes while building a sense of self-worth and self-efficacy. Since October 7th, the volume and urgency for therapeutic support for women has risen steeply. With CHW’s support, Eden has been able to open and offer treatment through its Trauma Therapy Center. The center provides tailored therapies for girls and women in the aftermath of the events of the past two years, and for those who suffered from complex PTSD prior to the war and whose conditions have worsened as a result. In doing so, the center is preventing long-term suffering, restoring hope, and building a healthier future for hundreds of women living in the south of Israel.
INSPIRED TO CREATE Following October 7th, Eden launched HERSTORY, a unique documentation project that has collected testimonials from more than 80 women, an essential part of both healing and remembrance. In October 2025, Eden hosted “October 7th HERSTORY: Voices From The Frontlines,” an exhibit curated by Nurit Tal-Tenne that gives voice to women who served on Israel’s frontlines: those who fought, rescued, and saved lives, and who continue to carry the emotional affliction of October 7th and the ongoing war. It features the works of nine women artists inspired by these testimonies, as well as a short film presenting excerpts from the women’s stories. The works touch upon themes of the female warrior, gender identity versus military ethos, equality and the burden of proof, vulnerability and strength, post-trauma, social vs. national and personal vs. emotional, and testimony as healing.
Alicia Shahaf’s
Featured on our cover is Equals based on testimonies of female combat soldiers. The photograph—of a young woman sitting in a “masculine” pose wearing a soft, flowing dress, bulletproof vest, and combat boots still covered in dust from Gaza—reflects the complex way in which these women perceive themselves. This perception is in relation to gender expectations in terms of their personal self-image and the acceptance of their presence within their male-dominated combat units. This work explores the tension between the dissolution of social and stereotypical expectations tied to gender roles. The juxtaposition is intentional: the feminine and martial coexisting without pretense, embodying both tenderness and defiance, strength and simultaneously soft and subversive. 14
ORAH WINTER 2026