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HCEF Commits $600,000.00 for Job Creation in the Holy Land
04-Feb-04
Contact: Robert Younes, MD
(301) 951-9400
younes@hcef.org
The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation*
News Release
For Immediate Release
The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation announced today that $600,000 has been committed to creating jobs in the Holy Land. The funds will be divided between two projects. In the town of Beit Jala, $300,000.00 will be allocated to augment the $500,000.00 already invested in the Al-Bishara Housing Project in order to complete the twenty-apartment complex by Christmas 2004. The newly found funds will allow completion of the plumbing and electrical work so that the apartments can be occupied by tenants. Another $300,000 will be allocated to rehabilitate and renovate homes in the Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, and Beit Jala area, targeting Christian families from all denominations living in substandard housing conditions. Additionally, this allocation will fund rehabilitation of the beautiful historic homes in the region that have been partially destroyed by Israeli tank fire, and restoration of the Orthodox Christian Sunday School allied with the historic Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation were instrumental in raising the funds to complete the projects. "These building projects are important for the community mainly because of the jobs created, so that breadwinners can go back to work again and feed their families," said Sir Rateb Rabie, president of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation.
The much-needed work in the community will help reduce the unemployment rate, estimated at 60% nowadays, and the poverty level (defined as income of $2 per day or less per person). The proposed projects will create work opportunities to at 100 unemployed with a value of 40% of the total budget. Workers employed in these projects will now have adequate income to feed their families and provide a degree of financial security in a town that has experienced severe economic depression for the last 3-4 years.
Beit Jala, like many towns in Palestine, has been placed under curfew by the Israeli military occupational forces on numerous occasions in the past in addition to being surrounded with checkpoints that impede economic development and normal travel for agricultural, commercial, educational and social reasons. The checkpoints have also prevented the inhabitants of Beit Jala from traveling to Jerusalem to worship at the church of the Holy Sepulcher at Easter and other holy days.
Beit Jala is a town of 12,000 inhabitants, which, with its adjacent companion towns of Bethlehem and Beit Sahour, have a total population of 50,000 people, half of whom are Palestinian Arab Christians. These Christians represent the descendents of the original Christians, who first heard the teaching of Jesus Christ and have held to their Christian faith for generations spanning 2000 years. Unfortunately, due to the brutal conditions imposed by the military occupation, many Christians are leaving their beloved homeland and migrating to the Americas, Europe and Oceania. It is hoped that by providing decent housing for the remaining Christians through projects such as this, that they will remain and maintain presence of the living body of Christ in the place where Jesus was born and gave His message of peace to the world. |
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