Support Families with Special Needs in Palestine

Thanks to your help, at the Homes we have been able to expand our family support program to even the youngest of our residents’ families.

Open days provide a special opportunity for children to gather with other youngsters who also have a differently challenged member.  Frequently, the children learn new ways of engaging comfortably with their loved one via simple games, hugs and smiles.  Our residents are thrilled. 

On Open Days, family members have new shared experiences with their loved ones—and create happy memories until the next visit.

Family members who have participated in the Family Support Program immediately reach out to new family members, providing them with the support they craved until the program began.

Please know that you have made a huge difference in the lives of our residents to their families.

Thank you! for your caring and sharing.

Having much loving contact with their families is an on-going challenge for many of our residents.  Their disabilities require assistance that many families simply cannot provide.  Their homes are not wheel-chair accessible.  Parents may have aged past the point of being able to help or died.  Siblings have married and the new spouse refuses to have our resident home—except, perhaps for brief visits.

Permits are denied.

In all such instances, the Homes works extraordinarily hard and creatively to foster and sustain the bonds between out resident and his/her family:

Samira, now 49, came to us when she was 17.  Delightful, articulate—in English as well as her native Arabic, a fashion aficionado, Samira was born with cerebral palsy, is largely paralyzed on one side, and moves about easily in her electric wheelchair. 

Because Samira is from Gaza and her family was barred from coming to Bethany to see her, for many years, her only family contact has been an occasional phone call.  Both her parents have now died.

When, finally, the Homes were able to get her surviving brother a permit and he came to see her, Samira’s smile lit up the entire building!  

As we begin the holy month of Ramadan, the Homes are providing educational, emotional and logistical support so as many of our residents can spend as much time as possible with their families. Your assistance helps make this possible.

Thank you!!