HARVEST PROJECT 2014: Al-Shurooq School For Blind Children, Jerusalem

So far we have raised £407.60 for the harvest project.

Our harvest service was held on Sunday 28th of September . This year we were raising money for Al-Shurooq School for Blind Children in Jerusalem and raising awareness of the work of this school in a very difficult and often dangerous environment. The National Society for the Visually Handicapped (NSFVH) was founded in 1962 in Jerusalem and its first role was to produce books in Arabic and English Braille, creating a library serving the Middle East.

In 1981, Al-Shurooq School for Blind Children was established as the educational facility of the society. The school is one of the few organisations in Palestine that takes care of disadvantaged blind and partially sighted children and it is the only school in Palestine that takes children of preschool age. The school is open to children between 3 and 12 years old and most of the children come from deprived families living in the West Bank. At the school they find education, food and shelter. Due to the war and destruction in Gaza, the NSFVH is expecting to receive more children, since most of the organisations and infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed.

Since 1994, the school has been located in Beit Jala, a Palestinian Christian town 10 km south of Jerusalem. It lies on the western side of the Hebron road opposite Bethlehem, just 2km from the Church of the Nativity. Their current premises are rented, but the NSFVH has purchased land in the area and hopes eventually to build a permanent and specially adapted centre – with a school and a resource centre for the blind and visually impaired.

The NSFVH, is financed by the ongoing support of churches (especially the Church of Scotland), the McCabe Educational Trust and through partnership projects, such as child sponsorship programmes. They also receive local support in the form of food and clothing for the children. The running expenses for the Society and the school come to approximately $15,000 USD per month and they need help and support to sustain the services they offer .

Our harvest project will raise money as a one off gift to the society, but if you would like to find out more about their child sponsorship programmes or if you would like to make regular donations to the work of the Society you can find more information on their website www.nsfvh.org or you can get in touch with them directly by emailing info@nsfvh.org or through their mail box: NSFVH, PO Box 19924, Jerusalem 91198. A copy of the Society’s latest Newsletter is enclosed with this magazine, but all their recent Newsletters can be found on their website.

This is a very worthwhile project which will help vulnerable children living under terrible circumstance in an area which has been much in the news recently because of the terrible tit for tat conflict ranging in Gaza. Gaza and other war torn areas have been the subject of our ongoing prayers for peace and reconciliation which we have offered up as part of the Moderator’s Dove of Peace Campaign. Please also remember in your prayers, the staff of this Society and School, working under very difficult conditions, doing their best to bring a future and a hope to the children they serve.