SOS Children in Palestinian Territories
With the on-going conflict in the Middle East, there has been no resolution to the problem of the large numbers of Palestinian Arab refugees living in the Gaza Strip, many in squalid and overcrowded camps. Aid is organised primarily by the various United Nations relief agencies, but mostly focuses on immediate needs rather than long-term solutions.
SOS Children built its first village in the historic biblical town of Bethlehem in the West Bank in 1968. The village has 14 family houses for 126 orphaned and abandoned children. The older children live in the nearby SOS Youth Homes, where, together with a support worker, they learn to take the important decisions in life. They are welcome to stay in the youth homes until they are ready to become independent, at whatever age that may be.
In 1986, an SOS Nursery School was opened for 90 little children, from both the children’s village and the local community. The charity also constructed an SOS Primary School for 390 pupils, and it has classrooms, an art room, and a library.
In 2003, SOS Children set up a special aid programme to provide support for children suffering from trauma, who experience violence on an almost daily frequency. Using a mobile therapy centre, a team of doctors and social workers are providing psychological support and therapy, spending at least two months in different locations. An SOS Family Strengthening Programme, or FSP, also cares for the most vulnerable families; these families are in danger of breaking up due to emotional and/or economic pressures, and the aim of the FSP is to ensure the families can stay together long-term and that child abandonment does not occur.
In 1999, following three years of negotiation with the Palestinian authorities, a site close to Rafah - Gaza, in the southwest of the Gaza Strip, was given to SOS Children's Villages for a new village. This area has a particularly high population density, and also suffers from high levels of poverty.
The village in the Gaza Strip is based in Deir Sultan, 10 miles from Rafah and has 14 family houses for 120 children, a youth home for girls, and a nursery with room for 360, mostly local, children. We have also set up a little SOS Nursery School in Khan Younis, Gaza. There is also a primary school in Rafah, with capacity for 150 pupils and an SOS Social Centre and FSP for 3,000 people, which includes a small emergency medical unit run in co-operation with the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
At present there are two SOS Children’s Villages in Palestine, alongside two SOS Youth Homes, three SOS Nursery Schools, two SOS Schools, one SOS Medical Centre, and nine SOS Social Centres / FSPs / Mobile Medical Units.
SOS Children's Village Bethlehem was looking forward to welcoming five siblings, aged between 14 days and 9 years.These children used to live in a shack. When we found them, their mother was lying on a thin mattress on the ground breathing heavily. She was mentally ill and only a fortnight before she gave birth to a girl who was left at the maternity hospital. One of the neighbours explained the miserable situation of the family to the SOS team, and said that the children did not attend school. When 14-day-old Rania and her four brothers arrived at the SOS Children's Village everybody rushed to see her.They all wanted to hug and carry her. The SOS Mother was very enthusiastic about receiving the family in her house. She spent hours preparing a delicious hot meal for the children, she worked wholeheartedly to prepare the house for them and was very excited about buying a cot for baby Rania who, for the first time in her life, was welcomed by a loving family. Rania is the youngest child in the village. She is the darling of everybody!
Local contacts
SOS Children’s Villages in the Palestinian Territories
SOS Children's Village Bethlehem
Hermann Gmeiner Street
137/227
Bethlehem
Palestinian Territories
Tel: +972 2274 2267
Fax +972 2274 5179
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