Help Traumatized Palestinian Children

This year has been like a roller coaster. First the Spafford Children’s Center in Jerusalem was open for two months, then closed March through May, open again in June, only to close Friday, September 25 for at least three weeks by order of the local authorities due to the Coronavirus. The children, families, and staff of SCC are so disappointed. They loved being back at the Center for lessons in Arabic, English, and math; speech therapy, occupational therapy, plus art projects and fun games. Palestinian children, particularly those with special learning needs, were not well served by the minimal online classes offered by their schools, plus many lacked connectivity and computers to even log on. Once the SCC opened, they flocked through the doors to see their beloved teachers and friends.

Children and families felt safe at SCC. The Center had been disinfected, toys and desks the children touch were cleaned after every class, face masks were required, and sanitizer stations were in place. When the SCC is allowed to open again there will be additional expenses to clean the stone walls and floors of the 150-year-old building in the Old City of Jerusalem. Please help the SCC continue to be a place of healing and hope for Palestinian children and families.

The Spafford Children’s Center (SCC) is open and everyday children line up, wearing their masks, to have their temperatures taken and to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer before running downs the halls to classes in English, Arabic, and math. At the SCC they get individualized attention in small classes of two or three students with one professional teacher. This is vastly different from the crowded classrooms they usually attend and worlds better than the online instruction they couldn’t access during the closure due to COVID-19.

Jafar’s family is very poor. They live in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. His parents did not have the opportunity for education beyond the primary grades and never learned more than a few words of English. They want him to master English as it may allow him to get better jobs than they have, but so far it has been difficult.

Bringing him to the Spafford Children’s Center is the first bit of hope they have had. Here the teachers assess what Jafar knows and what he needs to learn. They determine that he can’t distinguish some letters and gets confused with the long and short sounds vowels can make. He can’t read simple sentences and he doesn’t know days of the week, months, or the names for colors. For a 5^th grader, he has some catching up to do.

The teacher gets right to work preparing colored cards to make a game of identifying days of the week and also colors. Soon he has moved on to writing and sounding out words and repeating words with long and short vowel sounds. Now he is asking to write sentences and read them aloud.

What Jafar really likes is the support of his teacher. She is always encouraging, telling him he can master the sounds and words. The two other kids in the class cheer him on—no teasing allowed here—and they all celebrate the achievements of each other. Jafar is not so shy anymore; he knows he can learn and succeed.

The American Friends of the Spafford Children’s Center (AFSCC) is devoted to raising much needed funds for the SCC.  Thank you for your past donations to AFSCC through GlobalGiving and we hope this report gives you an idea how important your support is to Palestinian children and families who live in difficult circumstances, try to learn in overcrowded schools, and face unrest and discrimination on a regular basis.  SCC has been a fixture in the Old City of Jerusalem for over 90 years and the need now is greater than ever. With help from people like you the SCC continues to be a beacon of hope for children and families.