Access to transport is a critical step in women`s development. If women are unable to travel from place to place, they are cut off from the work-force and economic activity, from health and social services, from educational institutions, and from participation in their communities. Lack of mobility is a source of gender inequality and women`s poverty. Empowerment is impossible without transportation. In most Arab towns and villages in Israel, public transportation is still non-existent.

"Friends, I want to go out of the house and attend an empowerment workshop. I want to contribute to the empowerment of other women and to the society, but it is difficult for me to come. If there is no man - brother, father or husband - to drive me, I have to go by foot for an hour!" said a woman in Kayan`s empowerment group in Mghar in 2003. This statement encouraged us to initiate the project Women Demand Mobility, aiming to bring public transportation to all Arab towns and villages in Israel.

The project was innovative and visionary, so its beginnings were marked by trial and error. At first, the women of Mghar simply did by themselves what the state would not do for them: assessing local transportation needs and designing public transport accordingly: routes, bus-stops, timetables, everything. Only later we understood that a reliable and sustainable service needs involvement from the state. This was the beginning of a major advocacy campaign directed towards the authorities, and carried by women`s pressure groups in numerous villages - our "mobility groups."

In 2008, we concluded this effort with tremendous success. Who would have dreamt in our humble beginning that only five years later, we would be partners with the Ministry of Transport, preparing a work-plan for the installation of public transportation in Arab towns and villages? From 2009 on, women in Mghar and nine other towns and villages will be able to go by bus to wherever they need and want. A big thanks to everyone who made this dream come true!