My name is Suzan, from Irbid. I was an ordinary girl in my society until I had my first voluntary experience. It was a turning point in my life that encouraged me to be a different person; a person seeking to raise awareness about cultural and social reality. I was looking forward to making a positive change and impact in my society, and since then, I have never stopped. I have been involved in many training programs, workshops, and community initiatives. Most of the training sessions were held in Amman. It required me to commute from Amman to Irbid at late times, often after sunset, especially in winter. I used to walk several kilometers to my home. My family and myself were always worried since there were no street lights. I knew that this was an obstacle for many girls to benefit from similar opportunities or even go for a walk after sunset.

While volunteering at the Charity Marriage Association in Hartha, I was noticing that street lights play an important role in the freedom of movement, especially for girls, and their nonstop concern for leaving the Association before sunset.

I thought that it was my duty to act and demand the installation of street lights. I contacted two of my colleagues, Zahra al-Obaidat and Tamam Al-Azam, to work to find a solution to the lighting problem in Hartha village.

Initially, we contacted a group of women in the area to make sure they agreed and supported the initiative. We found that lighting public streets and stadiums in the village was a basic need for women, to enable them to live their lives in a normal way. We have also networked with decision-makers such as the mayor of the Kfarat municipality, the head of the local council in Hartha, a member of the decentralization group, and the administrator of the Bani Kinana district. We did not have enough understanding of the powers of each party. This initiative helped us to deepen our understanding of the municipalities and the regional council and delegation, and know the intersections between them; we did many things that helped us finally manage to convince the municipality to install lights for the street and the stadium. 

This initiative has changed our role in society as an association, as we have transformed from a charitable organization that receives and distributes humanitarian assistance to a development association, holding gender-sensitive and awareness training sessions, and working to mobilize the community and gain support for issues of their concern toward the local community as a whole, especially women.  This had increased community confidence in us, and they started to look at us as leaders in our society, our method of work improved and we became a role model in our society. Today we are more able to involve in community work as a team, we care more about the details, and even our financial management has improved.  Our ability to document, report, and work with volunteers has also increased. We have built important relationships and alliances with other associations in the area.

On a personal level, I gained new skills through the implementation of this initiative, the most important of which are overcoming obstacles and moving forward towards the purpose, as well as my colleagues, Tamam, and  Zahra. Tamam completely defied the traditional patterns of gender with her family and society, where she said, "I'm accepting my husband's helping me in housework now, I wasn’t before, and he has, in return supported me in it. I am accepting other opinions, I became a good listener to my children, and I gave my daughters a safe space by allowing them to go out with their friends even if it was a little dark.” As for Zahra Obeidat, who is one of the community leaders, she said, that this initiative has taught her the importance of involving women and youth in all the project stages from planning to developing and implementing.

Today, after a year and a half of several discussion meetings, and networking with the decision-makers for the initiative, we managed to put pressure on the Al-Kafarat municipality to install and maintain 117 lights, as well as providing energy units within the town of Hartha and lighting the two stadiums (Al-Riyadi and Al-Baladi). The southern part of the eastern street has nine light units, with nine more units to be installed in the near future. The northern part lighting was also been put on the municipal plan for 2020.