The rosaries will be handed out at next year’s World Youth Day. Some 250 men and women are involved in the project, improving their economic situation. The goal is “to create a future that is secure and free from poverty” and “encourage the youth to pray the rosary for peace, love and justice.”

Jerusalem  – Caritas Jerusalem has launched a project called ‘Changing Lives by Making Rosaries’. This entails needy families in Bethlehem Governorate making a million and a half rosaries for young people who will participate in next year’s World Youth Day in Panama.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Caritas Jerusalem noted that “The main aim of this project is not only to provide people with the means to create a future that is secure and free from poverty but also to encourage the youth to pray the rosary for peace, love and justice.”

The project itself will employ some 250 men and women working in 22 small olive wood workshops. In its statement, the Catholic charity illustrated its goal by presenting the stories of six of those workers.

D. N., 26, scraped a living by working olive wood. “I was always a hard worker, but the wages were so low that I could hardly make a living,” he said. “Caritas revived the market and increased the wages to a fair level.” He now makes 80 per cent more and has hired four jobless young men to work with him.

N.E. is 34 and has worked in olive wood since he was 12. He built a workshop with three machines and two employees, but after joining the Caritas project, he was able to expand his business.

This “is the first time that I have my own income,” said Hiba, a young mother from Beit Sahour whose husband is a day labourer. “It is a wonderful feeling to be able to produce and assist my family. I am proud to be able to pay the children’s tuition fees.”

For her part, Christine, a Christian woman from Bethlehem, would have made rosaries even for free but is happy to earn a living from it.

Shrouq and Maysa instead are two university students who can pay for their education with income from making rosaries.

Source: Asia News