After graduating from the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf, Fida studied audiology technology.
In 2015 he returned to join the staff of the school’s audiology department where he crafts individualized hearing devices for students, patients of the community clinics, and those served by mobile clinics in three Syrian refugee camps.
Fida’s wife Wijdan, also deaf, works as a teacher in the deaf-blind unit. They have two young, hearing children and also take care of Fida’s sister and Wijdan’s brother, both of whom are deaf students boarding at the school.
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Institution Spotlight:
Holy Land Institute for the Deaf
Salt, Jordan
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Beginning with this edition of AFEDJ’s e-news, each month we will take a closer look at one of the Diocese of Jerusalem’s institutions. We start with the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt, Jordan. For an expanded version of this article, please visit the
News section
of our website at
www.afedj.org
A safe haven of peace for 150 children and young people ages four to 25, the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt, Jordan, offers a full range of therapeutic services for hearing-impaired, deaf, and deaf-blind students and a K-12 academic boarding program. Each summer the Salt campus hosts training for teachers of hearing-impaired and deaf students from across the Middle East.
HLID also offers a community clinic to local residents, mobile outreach services to Syrian refugees living in three camps across Jordan, the Jofeh Community Rehabilitation Center in the Jordan Valley, and a clinic in Iraq. So far in 2019, its outreach services at community clinics and refugee camps have reached 984 patients for diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment. Another 2,976 people have benefited from community awareness training about people with disabilities and support services to parents of children with hearing impairment.
“We are the safety net for these children,” explained Archdeacon Luay Haddad, director of HLID,
(pictured above with a local woman visiting the community clinic).
“This is our ministry to the community. We cannot say ‘No.’”
With the exceptionally high rate of hearing-impairment found in the Jordanian population - estimated at 6 to 10 percent - the need for this work among affected children is crucial and the effect it has on students is life-changing. The leaders and teachers at HLID and its outreach ministries depend on the support from AFEDJ donors to offer a door to a bright, productive future for those they serve.
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Update from Gaza: Research shows children pay a huge toll
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Recently-released research on child welfare in Gaza by the
Norwegian Refugee Council
makes for sobering reading. Researchers studied the welfare of children since the right-of-return demonstrations at the border began in the spring of 2018.
The report finds that “68 percent of schoolchildren in areas close to the Israeli perimeter fence have clear indications of psychosocial distress. The majority said they were most severely affected by the sounds of nearby explosions and media images of conflict in Gaza.”
Other findings show “children have also reported witnessing the violence first hand, as well as knowing people who have been injured, killed or lost their homes. A worrying 54 percent said they had no hope for a brighter future. The study also revealed that a staggering 81 percent of children struggle academically due to conflict-related stress.”
Ahli Arab Hospital is there for the children of Gaza
Despite cuts in funding, Ahli Hospital continues, though its community clinic, to offer psycho-social therapy to children affected by trauma. Currently the clinic is open just one day a week. AFEDJ is seeking foundation grant funding from several sources that will allow the clinic to open for a second day, thereby doubling the number of patients seen.
In 2018 more than 650 individual AFEDJ donors contributed to keeping the doors of Ahli Hospital open. Never underestimate the power of many gifts gathered together to make a difference. For hundreds of children in Gaza and their families, it already has.
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"The situation [in Gaza] is collapsing. Everyday patients come to ask for help at our door. They come to ask if we can give them some money to buy food for their children.
"We look at a mom with four children looking for one shekel or two shekel - which is a half dollar - to be able to buy bread for her children. Really, that’s very painful.
"Ahli Arab Hospital is not only a place for medical treatment, it is a humanitarian institution where we are working to help the people as much as we can.”
-Ahli Arab Hospital Director Suhaila Tarazi
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Hot off the virtual press
Check out AFEDJ’s 2018 Annual Report
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In 2018 your generosity allowed AFEDJ to transmit more than $1.4 million to support the Diocese of Jerusalem’s schools, hospitals, and centers for children with disabilities. That direct support through our safe, secure channel marked the highest amount that AFEDJ has provided in its 30-year history.
Please download our
2018 Annual Report
to learn more about the life-changing work of these institutions. By responding to the call for support during an incredibly challenging year, you made this happen.
Read all about it!
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In their own voices
Students at ETVTC talk about their dream jobs and what they love best about their school
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Last fall students and alumni from the Episcopal Technological and Vocational Training Center in Ramallah sat down with AFEDJ staff to talk about why they chose ETVTC, their hopes for the future, and what they would tell younger students about their school.
Offering a two-year vocation program in one of two tracks - hospitality management or information technology - ETVTC is an option for students after grade 10 who might not thrive in an academic program.
Director Giovanni Anbar, a champion of vocational education who founded the school in 1990, recognizes the challenges faced by many students across the West Bank, “Palestinian students struggle to succeed under the pressure of occupation. Many students will not pass the official high school exam, and nearly half of young Palestinians are unemployed.”
But listen to the young people we interviewed in October, and you’ll only hear hope.
The support offered by AFEDJ donors to ETVTC opens pathways for success that will allow these inspiring students, and many more like them, to
thrive
.
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American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem | 203-655-3575
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www.afedj.org
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Transforming lives of the vulnerable and displaced
in the Middle East through support of schools, hospitals,
and centers for children with disabilities.
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AFEDJ offers a safe, secure channel to make gifts to support the work of the humanitarian institutions of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.
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