November 2019
High school students at Christ Episcopal School in Nazareth learn video production in their fully-equipped media lab. Here the team is preparing to interview AFEDJ's John Lent who visited the school last week.
“The work you're doing in this class is the future.

"Every student, no matter what their interests, should have access to these kinds of tools and this kind of training to help tell your stories to your neighbors, your families and the wider community.”
- John Lent
AFEDJ Executive Director
The newly-completed lab and the opportunities for students to learn to share their stories is made possible because of your generous support. Thank you to everyone who supported this wonderful project. 
Christ School students' brief interview with AFEDJ Executive Director John Lent
Christ School students film the olive harvest in one minute
Ahli’s Free Community Clinic,
“The Heartbeat of the Hospital”
a visit to Gaza's Ahli Arab Hospital offers a glimpse of enduring hope and ongoing need
Last week AFEDJ’s John Lent had the opportunity to see first-hand the impact of the generosity of supporters to Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

Lent and Nancy Opalack, CEO of the Harold C. Smith Foundation, toured the hospital with Suhaila Tarazi, Ahli’s director. They met mothers and children at Ahli’s free community clinic that Tarazi calls, “the heartbeat of the hospital.” 

Because of U.S. cuts in aid beginning in 2018, the free clinic was open only one day a week and sometimes less frequently.

That changed in June 2019 when a $468,000 grant from the Smith Foundation allowed the clinic to open for a second day each week for the next year. In addition to funding the clinic, the grant enabled Ahli to purchase much-needed equipment for surgery and burn therapy. 
A mother and daughter wait to be seen in the underweight and malnourished children’s clinic
Lent saw evidence of AFEDJ support everywhere: an increase of capacity to serve malnourished and low-weight children, additional services for children traumatized by the appalling living conditions in Gaza and the effects of political turmoil, and more women screened for breast cancer.

“On each visit to Gaza I am always struck by the heroic work of Suhaila and her team, but on this trip I was deeply moved on our walk with her through the nearby Jabalya refugee camp. Suhaila was hugged over and over by women and children who have been helped at Ahli. She, too, is the heartbeat of this remarkable ministry.”
A group psycho-social therapy session for traumatized children held at Ahli Arab Hospital
in Gaza City.

A 2019 report from Norwegian Refugee Council states that “68 percent of schoolchildren in areas close to the Israeli perimeter fence have clear indications of psychosocial distress.” The study also revealed that a staggering 81 percent of children struggle academically due to conflict-related stress.”
Conversations with leaders at Holy Land Institute for the Deaf
If you’ve watched our “Walk with a Child” video , (and we hope you have!) that invites American Friends to support a student at the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf, you were introduced to some wonderful leaders at the school.

Interested in learning more of their personal stories as well as their take on the importance of the education offered deaf and deaf-blind students at HLID?

We invite you to watch interviews with HLID teachers and administrators. 

First up, the Rev. Wadie N. Far, chaplain and director of the boarding program and student affairs, and Ms Fadileh Al Hiary, an HLID alumna and assistant principal.
Learn more about how you or your church can become a companion to a deaf or deaf-blind student at HLID through AFEDJ’s new Walk with a Child program.
Look for our fall newsletter in the mail
Here’s a peek at some of the headlines:

  • Follow in the footsteps of Jesus by walking with a child at Holy Land Institute for the Deaf

  • Young women at Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre know the power of an inclusive school

  • Beyond high school: ETVTC offers career training for adults

  • and much more!
Mothers and children at Princess Basma Centre who benefit from diocesan SDG grants
Also check out an article (on page 26) in the November edition of The Episcopal New Yorker about inspiring young women at Saviour’s School in Zarka, Jordan, and Princess Basma Inclusive School in East Jerusalem.

AFEDJ trustee, the Rev. Matthew Dayton Welch, greets the Diocese of Jerusalem 
Last week at the annual Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem Majma, similar to a diocesan convention, the Rev. Matthew Dayton Welch, an AFEDJ trustee from Newtown Square, PA, addressed those gathered and shared the abiding commitment of American Friends to support the humanitarian work of the diocese and the thousands of people whose lives are touched by those ministries.

“Our accomplishments are but tokens of our gratitude for the privilege of holding your stories and sharing them with our sisters and brothers in the United States,” Dayton Welch said.

Thanks, Matt!
Transforming lives of the vulnerable and displaced
in the Middle East through support of schools, hospitals,
and centers for children with disabilities

AFEDJ offers a safe, secure channel to make gifts to support the work of the humanitarian institutions of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem | 203-655-3575 | www.afedj.org