Monday August 12, 2013 Visits to St. Vincent, Peace Center for Heritage, Rose of Jerusalem, Four Homes of Mercy, Shorouq

Sister Pascal and Sister Susan at St. Vincent, a home for severely handicapped children. 

They accept Muslin, Jew, Arab, Christian - anyone. Volunteers come for  6 - 12 months to help the permanent staff.  Many are from Germany and Austria. The Jerusalem Center provided a computer and a commercial grade food processor to serve up to 62 residents. It is very clean and well run. This area is the traditional site where John the Baptist was born.

 The visits below were in Bethany in the West Bank.  We are not allowed to drive there, so the Jerusalem Center hires a driver to take us.  We pass a checkpoint on the way, but because it is used heavily by Israelis living in the West Bank, we sailed through without any delay. Bethany was a 10 minute walk to Bethpage before the wall, but it is a 20 minute drive by car now. Lazurus' tomb is in Bethany.

Sawsan with Linda at Peace Center for Heritage in Bethany (West Bank).  The Jerusalem Center provided $2000 for fabric and thread. Sawsan hires women to embroider clothing, pillows, purses, etc to help the women earn a living. It is supported by the YMCA also. It started with 6 women and now has 32. The Jerusalem Center also provides school kits that Sawsan distributes. Sawsan is university educated but lost her job in Jerusalem because she wasn't allowed to travel there after the separation wall was put up.

 

Linda and Blaine with some of the children at Rose of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority gave them $25,000 in 2008 to support their work with handicapped children, but nothing since.

Classroom in Rose of Jerusalem in Bethany.

Four Homes of Mercy for handicapped. Usama, the director (left), has a masters degree from a university in the UK. He wrote his thesis on corruption in the Palestinian Authority.  Land for the building was donated by King Hussein. The Jerusalem Center donated a piano, computer and screen.

Shorouq Women's Society is a women's center. Fatima (center) established it in 2002  to promote involvement of women in community affairs. She was elected to the city council in October 2012 for 4 years. The Jerusalem Center provided a refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, and sewing machines. The women had prepared a full meal for us.