Ma'an Lil Hayat Bethlehem

Read about what they do.(English)

عربى

I'm with Mahera Ghareeb from Ma'an Lil Hayat, L'arche Bethlehem, Now Mahera what is Ma'an Lil Hayat L'arche Bethlehem?.

We are a branch of the international federation of L'arche, that was founded in 1964 in France, and not is spread all over the world, there are more than 150 branches in the world, and our branch opened in 2009 in Bethlehem.

What does Ma'an Lil Hayat mean ?.

It means together for life, and we welcome people with intellectual disabilities who are over 16 years old and we share work together, we share life together and we spend the day from half past 8 till 5 o'clock together, people with intellectual disabilities and assistants.

Why was the organization started here in Bethlehem?.

It started due to the need in the society for such projects, actually I used to work for more than ten years in another organization for people with intellectual disabilities and from that place I recognized the needs, We received so many applications a lot of families visited us to apply for their children but unfortunately there was no place and from that organization I learned more about L'arche and I really liked the vision and mission of L'arche and besides the need that we have here in the country these two reasons they came together to let  me ask  L'arche  "Why don't we open a L'arche project in Palestine. So this is how it started in 2009 I asked L'arche in France because their main office is in Paris, So I was asking them why not open here and after some interviews they agreed to open, So we opened in August 2009.

Are there many people working with Children but not so many people working with young adults?.

Yeah, this is why when we wanted to open we were thinking about our target group, we know that in the country here we do not have enough centers for people with intellectual disabilities, But there are some centres for children but when they are adults, when they become 16 years old they cannot stay at their centres, so that is why this is the need because either they stay at home, locked at home and the parents are ashamed to say that they have children with disabilities or they are just running around in the streets and this is why we opened.

Are they all from the Bethlehem area or are they from further afield?.

They are from the Bethlehem area, From Bethlehem the city, the refugee camps in the Bethlehem area and some of the villages, Because we are a daily program we are not a home so the transportation issue is really important, we cannot welcome people who live outside the Bethlehem area because then the transportation will be very difficult.

I'm with Mahera Ghareeb from Ma'an Lil Hayat, L'arche Bethlehem, Now Mahera what is Ma'an Lil Hayat L'arche Bethlehem?.

We are a branch of the international federation of L'arche, that was founded in 1964 in France, and not is spread all over the world, there are more than 150 branches in the world, and our branch opened in 2009 in Bethlehem.

What does Ma'an Lil Hayat mean ?.

It means together for life, and we welcome people with intellectual disabilities who are over 16 years old and we share work together, we share life together and we spend the day from half past 8 till 5 o'clock together, people with intellectual disabilities and assistants.

Why was the organization started here in Bethlehem?.

It started due to the need in the society for such projects, actually I used to work for more than ten years in another organization for people with intellectual disabilities and from that place I recognized the needs, We received so many applications a lot of families visited us to apply for their children but unfortunately there was no place and from that organization I learned more about L'arche and I really liked the vision and mission of L'arche and besides the need that we have here in the country these two reasons they came together to let  me ask  L'arche  "Why don't we open a L'arche project in Palestine. So this is how it started in 2009 I asked L'arche in France because their main office is in Paris, So I was asking them why not open here and after some interviews they agreed to open, So we opened in August 2009.

Are there many people working with Children but not so many people working with young adults?.

Yeah, this is why when we wanted to open we were thinking about our target group, we know that in the country here we do not have enough centers for people with intellectual disabilities, But there are some centres for children but when they are adults, when they become 16 years old they cannot stay at their centres, so that is why this is the need because either they stay at home, locked at home and the parents are ashamed to say that they have children with disabilities or they are just running around in the streets and this is why we opened.

Are they all from the Bethlehem area or are they from further afield?.

They are from the Bethlehem area, From Bethlehem the city, the refugee camps in the Bethlehem area and some of the villages, Because we are a daily program we are not a home so the transportation issue is really important, we cannot welcome people who live outside the Bethlehem area because then the transportation will be very difficult.

How many Youth and Adults do you have in the Program?.

Nowadays there are 36 people with intellectual disabilities and 14 employees and assistants.

What sort of disabilities do they have?.

All of them they have intellectual disabilities, either from Birth, Lack of Oxygen, or Down Syndrome or Accidents, but all of them have intellectual disabilities, some of them they have physical disabilities as well.

Now you have a wool felting program, Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, when we first started we were thinking what activities do we want to do here at the centre and besides teaching the core members, We call people with disabilities core members because they are in the core of our centre, So we want them to learn how to depend on themselves and so by learning the daily basics skills, so here at the centre they learn these daily basic skills and when they go back home they really depend less on the mothers, especially the mothers, Like using the toilet, making a sandwich, cleaning, having a shower so all this, But we wanted something else to be beside this, we were looking for handicraft for something to do by hand and to be busy with so one of the volunteers, French volunteers suggested why don't you make felt, and for us, for me in Palestine we know nothing about felt, or we knew nothing about felt, so we were looking and searching and  we discovered that it would be really wonderful handicraft for people to do, It is relaxing, it is nice to do and above all they can see the result, they can start with the raw wool, we purchase the raw wool from the farmers around and so after cleaning it after doing the carding people with disabilities, with the assistants they make felt items, so the core members can see the result, they see the wool in the beginning and then they can see their results so that they can become really proud of themselves. And also we didn't want to make them busy with something like Lego or a puzzle, they are adults we don't want them to play with toys and make the puzzle and at the end of the day we collect it put it under the table and the next day we have the same puzzle to play with, So that is why we thought the felt is really going to be good for our core members and also for the farmers around, we are now opening Job opportunities for the farmers for 10 years now, we started with one farmer,  she was a mother of one of the core members, she had some sheep and we bought the wool from her and nowadays she is collecting wool from other farmers in the neighborhood and she cleans it the basic cleaning and sells it to us.

Is there anyone else in Palestine doing something like this?.

Actually we are the first and only wool felting project in Palestine until now.

And all the wool comes from the Bethlehem area, the Bethlehem sheep?.

Mostly from the Bethlehem area, but sometimes we go to Hebron, there is a village and we purchase the wool from that village  

Is there a process that needs to take place to clean the wool and get it ready to be made into a felt?

Yeah it is a very long process and maybe this is why nobody is doing this because first the farmers they clean it and they send it to us, we rented a small flat far away from here in order to bring the dirty wool to that flat and then clean it again, first of all freeze it because of the moth, so we freeze it for 7 days and then we clean it again and then it comes here to the center to be carded, in the beginning we started with a hand carder and then slowly , slowly we had an electric carding machine and two years ago we could get an industrial electric carding machine. After it is carded we send it to the rooms in order to make felt and also we do the coloring of the wool here at the centre.

And then it gets made into various products.

Yeah we are very proud of our products, we make the Nativity scenes as we are in Bethlehem, people like it so much, It is related to the story and to Bethlehem. Also we make sheep, we make Christmas ornaments we make pillow covers, pillow cases, we make wall hangings , bags and recently we started a new project to add 2 new lines using the leather from Hebron, we are doing slippers with leather and bags with leather and these two items, it’s a project that we received donations from the Polish aid and an Italian fair trade company or organization we have been dealing with them for a long time , they helped us with the designs, how to make the designs and they are going to help us with the marketing.

Are you bringing dignity into these people's lives ?.

Yes for sure, when they see that they are producing nice items and these items are sold, people are willing to pay money for these items so they are really proud of themselves.

Do they get paid as well for working in the products?

Actually not really paid, because we never cover our costs through the sales because our production capacity is very limited, you know we don't want the assistants to do the work and to produce the items, we want the core members to do them themselves and due to the disability they have they are a bit slow in their production. So we cover 50% of our expenses through the sales, the other 50% it comes from donations, from Local and foreign organizations. But  people while coming here they do not pay fees for sure, they pay part of the transportation costs the families, they are offered 3 meals a day for free so this is what we offer, we go for picnics for free, we make several activities, recreational activities all for free, so this is what we can offer but not  a salary because we cannot cover.

If they weren't here would they be getting into trouble on the street.?

Yeah for sure many of them and this was one of the reasons why I wanted to open such a project in order to stop them from being in the streets or locked at home, some of the families they are ashamed of them and they just lock them at home and because the mother wants to go to work, Most of the mothers now work so they prefer to lock them at home and go to work.

Do they also receive therapy when they are here?.

Actually not really here, but we work with other organizations to transfer them either for physiotherapy or if they need any medical care. We also transfer them for the dentist or we accompany them to the hospitals if they need, for example 3 years ago one of the core members was diagnosed with Brest Cancer and we accompanied her till the end by taking her to the appointments, to the chemotherapy sessions and this actually opened another aspect, another approach for Ma'an Lil Hayat, when she finished her Chemotherapy sessions because while she was taking them she was really very sweet and she made a lot of relationships and friendships with the other patients, so when she finished she was asking to go back again to visit her friends and while accompanying her we discovered that at the hospital, at the governmental hospital nothing is given for the patients, Sandwiches, tea, water, So we saw this need and with the will of Sana visiting her friends we thought OK we will go there and offer a snack for the patients and the people who accompany them. So for 2  years now we visit the hospital twice a week, we offer a meal, a snack and by this we help the patients for sure but also we spread our mission, we show the society, the local society that people with intellectual disabilities are not helpless, they are ready to help others who are weaker.

You have just celebrated 10 years of Ma'an Lil Hayat, did you have any special events?.

Yes it was in September we celebrated our 10^th anniversary, we organized a very nice celebration, we invited families, friends, other organizations working in this field and around 350 people attended, it was under the auspices of the mayor of Bethlehem. And during the celebration there was something really beautiful, we are now in a very good relationship with Inad theatre . We have a very nice relationship, Khalid from Inad he is helping us a lot, Last year in November, Inad theatre together with Ma'an Lil hayat went to Germany for two weeks to perform a play, so some of our core members, 7 were trained by Inad theatre for a play and they went to Germany for 2 weeks and this week we asked Khalid to come and do something for the celebration and he is really amazing, he made a play just for our core members and the assistants together and this was during the celebration.

Now the preparations for Christmas must be a very busy time for you.

Yes, and we like to be very busy for sure, although every year we say we have to make stock before Christmas comes or before September -  October because this September we start to become busy because Organizations and shops abroad  they start to order from September and we ship for them all over the world, So we always say we want to make stock but we never succeed, So now we are really busy but thank God we love it we love to be busy.

What sort of specific things do you make for Christmas time.?

We make the Nativity scenes, we have 3 sizes of the Nativity scenes, we make Christmas ornaments for the tree, some decorations for the house, Snowmen, Christmas Cards, Trees, colored trees , stockings and pillows also especially to use under the tree, to decorate under the tree.

And all these are made out of the sheep's wool from Bethlehem?.

Yes for sure, and this is really important to use the sheep wool from Bethlehem because in the beginning when we started we didn't find a carding machine here so we were looking, we need a carding machine and the wool cannot be felted without being carded, So when we didn't find this machine we found wool through an Israeli salesman from New Zealand but this wasn't our point we wanted to use our wool from Bethlehem and we looked for these machines till we found them.

How long does it take a child to make a felt Nativity?.

I cannot say one person how long he needs to make a Nativity because it's all a group work, people are divided into groups every 6 to 7 persons with one assistant and the whole group they make around 15 nativities a day and another group they make the people who are inside, Virgin Mary and Joseph and the small sheep, So another group is doing what is put inside and another group does the Nativities.

It must be something special because these come from Bethlehem and go all around the world.

Yeah this is why we are really lucky to find this thing, to make the nativity scenes in Bethlehem and that is why people like them.

How do you celebrate Christmas here in L'arche.?

Actually we have our own L'arche way, in the beginning of December we have a community night  where all members of the community gather together and we have a nice special meal and then we decorate our tree of course we decorate our tree from our Christmas ornaments and each one of us lights a candle and makes a wish and then hangs the Christmas Ornament. And before Christmas which is normally the last day of the year because then we have our Christmas holiday, we have a party where we share presents, where we give presents to each other and have a nice Lunch and go home.

Does Father Christmas come to visit L'arche ?

Father Christmas is more for Children and we are adults so we have our way, we write all our names and we close the paper and each one of us we take a name without knowing whose name is inside and then we buy and choose the present and we buy for the one  who's name we have.

Do the youth and the young Adults look forward to Christmas here?.

Oh sure it is really a wonderful time, Celebrations, Singing, listening to music, Christmas songs, besides we are all very excited, preparing and busy preparing all the orders needed, so it is a very busy nice time.

And they love singing the Christmas carols as well?.

Yes sure, although we are Muslims and Christians living together here.

Are you one big family here?

Sure we are one big family and part of a larger and bigger family, Most of the people who come to visit us and they know other L'arche projects they say "When we entered we felt the same atmosphere, we felt that we are in our community somewhere in the world.

Are you making a difference in society?

Yes, always and for sure we are, for example visiting the Chemotherapy session, it is part of our changing the society, also the celebration that we made and we performed on stage, it is really new for the society to see this, also while visiting the families because we visit the families often we change the society for sure. When we participate in Christmas Bazaars  we are behind the tables selling our products, people with and without disabilities together.

What is your website for people who would like to look at your product and maybe even buy some product.?

We have recently made a new website, we upgraded our first one and the address is larchebethlehem.org , or you can find us on facebook at Ma'an lil-Hayat / L'arche Bethlehem