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Beit Jala 25 October 2004 To: The Bethlehem Association Dear Friends Saint Nicolas Home is a Charitable Society for the Elderly, which was first founded in the town of Beit Jala in the year 1976 by a group of people of good will. In summer 2001 a new board was elected, whom aim is to continue the journey of this institute to better serve the community of elderly people in Bethlehem area. Due to the first and the second Palestinian Intifada, Saint Nicolas Home activities deteriorated drastically and financial support become lesser, which caused the place to become inadequate for humans, so the number of residents went down till it reached three people. It was evident that the Home suffered both externally and internally. The elected board started to renovate the house and the surrounding area, and with Gods help all renovation works in the building and the garden are completed. We initiated many projects in our Home, with the support of many donors, such as the Belgium Cooperation, Pontifical Mission, the Welfare association and many other institutions. The projects were very necessary ones. Now every room in the house has a bathroom, the kitchen became larger, and the central heating system is now functioning. The entrance and the surrounding of the home were reconstructed in a way that enables the people of special needs to move freely, the same was done with the large garden. We have now two rooms for people of special needs. The electrical net was completely renewed, the building is connected now to the town sewage network, and the old wooden windows were replaced by aluminum ones and the home was painted in a nice green color. And with the support of the British Consulate in Jerusalem, we obtained very beautiful new wooden furniture, which replaced the old metallic cold, unhealthy one. The furniture was used for nine rooms, to be used by the residents and two rooms for the staff, who will take care of them day and night. From the beginning of this year, and after more than two years of hard working, we began to serve the elderly people in our community. Already twelve residents are living in our home now. We hope that it will be functioning in its full capacity, that's to say 19 residents. A staff of seven persons is taking care of our residents; three Argentineans nuns are working day and night in our Home on voluntary basis, a full time cooker, two cleaner and an administrative assistance is also among our staff, when more residents will join our Home more employees will be needed, a maintenance man, door keeper and one more cooker. The expected running cost for our Home (including food, salaries, electricity, water, foil for heating and cookery, telephone, medicines, etc.) will be about $5000 US monthly. This is a huge amount because our income resources are very limited. To keep our Home functioning we have to work continuously on fund raising to cover our running cost, our new approach to this issue is to find sponsors for our residents from local communities and abroad. As we calculated each one needs $300 US monthly. Our next vital project is the elevator. Our Home occupies a building of two floors, for that it's necessary to have the elevator, which will help the elderly people to move freely. The cost estimate for such a project is nearly about $ 45000 US, according to the study and the offer we received. This is a huge amount for any donor, so we applied to many organization and institute in order to participate partially in this project. Any possible assistance will be very much appreciated Dr. Sami Abudayyeh Chairman P.S: for any other information please contact us.
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