A message from the chairperson.

During the past two months we have been witnessing and accompanying the struggle of the single-mothers that began with the widely publicized protest march of Vicky Knafo from Mitzpe Ramon to Jerusalem, on foot. The march, in protest of the cut backs in supplementary benefits and child support as part of the economic "recovery" plan, raised public awareness to a difficult phenomenon: Women's poverty. Women find it hard to support their children and are forced to confront the lack of food and the continued challenge of meeting basic needs.

Single-mothers marched from around the country to join Knafo in Jerusalem, and erected a tent encampment opposite the Finance Ministry and near the Knesset where women and children crowded together in the heat of the summer. In September Vicky Knafo started a hunger strike and as we went to press on the eve of the New Year she packed up and went back to Mizpe Ramon where she will now run for a seat on the local council.

In response the Finance Ministry and government ministers chose to deal with the struggle by trying to de-legitimize it. The media quoted the finance minister pointing an accusing finger at the single-mothers, presenting them as a group of parasites not interested in working, and as women who chose to live alone and raise their children without a partner. Organizations of social change including the Israel Women's Network came to the assistance of the single-mothers in their struggle, disproving the information published by the finance ministry. Thus for instance, based on information from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the rate of working ...