Back to the Mansion House this afternoon for a fundraiser put on by three City churches to support a boys orphanage in Palestine.
The churches concerned were St. James, St. Barnabas and St. Gabriel's and there was a good turnout of people to raise money to help with the upkeep of the Jeel Al Amal orphanage.
The orphanage's website tells the story of how in 1972 Alice and Basil Sahhar rented two houses in Bethany. In the one they lived with their six children. And in the other ten boys were housed. Some boys were orphans. Others came from broken families that could not support their children. Within one year they were one hundred twenty strong.
Several rooms were crammed with bunks. Brothers often shared one bed. One room was used as a tiny dining room. Others were filled with old school desks. And there was a playground. Jeel al Amal was a fact: a home and school for needy boys. They became an institution and a school accredited by the Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian authorities.
Alice and Basil dreamed of a new building, where the boys would live in groups. A building with more privacy, with better sanitary fitting and with spaces to come together and play. And of course a proper dining room and a spacious kitchen.
They had set their eyes on a piece of land to the east of the town of Bethany. Here they realised their new home: a large two storey building with enough room for one hundred boys.
Since 1972 numerous boys have grown up in the cozy atmosphere of Jeel al Amal. The use of the word “housemothers” for the group leaders illustrates this coziness. The housemothers take care of the boys, with whom they have a personal relationship, as if they were their own children. They teach the boys to live together in a spirit of solidarity, openness and respect for each other.
With Palestinian families being made homeless from demolitions, this orphanage is needed more than ever,
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