Children's Aid Bethlehem

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Entrance to the Caritas Baby Hospital

The Children's Relief Bethlehem (KHB) is an international relief organization , the children, women and families in Palestine supported as well as in the surrounding countries. It is organized as a non-profit association under Swiss law. The main project of this aid organization is the Children's Hospital Bethlehem (English and locally called Caritas Baby Hospital ). It was founded in 1952 by the Swiss Salettiner father Ernst Schnydrig in order to secure the work in the children's hospital in the long term.

Statutory tasks of the association are to secure and develop the medical care of the children's hospital as well as its other services, projects and emergency aid. In addition, the association supports individual projects for the benefit of children, young people and women and provides disaster relief in the Middle East. The aid funds allow the company to develop successfully.

Most of the funds come from private donations from Switzerland, Germany and Italy. In Switzerland, Kinderhilfe Bethlehem is certified by the ZEWO Foundation (testing center for non-profit, donation-collecting non-profit organizations ) and has had the ZEWO seal of approval since 1988 . In Germany, Children's Aid Bethlehem carries the DZI donation seal in the German Caritas Association.

Founding history

Caritas Baby Hospital, July 2018

In 1952, Father Ernst Schnydrig from Valais traveled to Bethlehem. He was supposed to report from the Holy Land on behalf of the Swiss Caritas and was shocked by the great hardship he found there. After the proclamation of the State of Israel and the War of Independence (Israeli historiography) and after the Nakba (catastrophe, Palestinian historiography), the Palestinian population had become impoverished and many families had become refugees. They lived in makeshift tents and were malnourished. When, on Christmas Eve 1952, he had to watch a desperate father bury his child in the mud near the camp, he was deeply moved.

On site, Father Schnydrig met the dispatcher of the Swiss Caritas Hedwig Vetter and the Palestinian doctor Anton Dabdoub. Together they decided to do something about the suffering of the children. They rented some rooms in the old town of Bethlehem and set up a small emergency center for sick newborns and children. This laid the foundation stone for the Caritas Baby Hospital.

He was hopeful that there would be people of good will who would take this initiative. In 1963 the "Association Caritas Children's Aid Bethlehem" was founded, from which the "Children's Aid Bethlehem" emerged. 15 years later, in April 1978, a separate hospital building was opened: the Caritas Baby Hospital . To date it is the only hospital in the West Bank specializing in children.

society

Kinderhilfe Bethlehem sees its work in Bethlehem as a sign of Christian solidarity with the Holy Land. At the center of action are people and their dignity, especially the protection of human life. Children's Aid Bethlehem is guided by the following principles in its work:

  • Support is given regardless of origin, gender, religion or political conviction and is particularly aimed at the poor and disadvantaged.
  • The cooperation with the local managers is based on partnership and aims to strengthen their personal responsibility.
  • The work of the KHB contributes to the sustainable improvement of the situation of children and young people as well as their families in the areas of health and social affairs.

The operational responsibility for Children's Aid Bethlehem is borne by the office, which is located in Lucerne. In Switzerland, she also runs a regional office in Friborg in the Üetland region. There are also three organizationally independent country offices, also organized as associations:

  • Children's Aid Bethlehem in the German Caritas Association in Freiburg i. Br., Germany
  • Aiuto Bambini Betlemme in Bussolengo, Italy
  • Children's Aid Bethlehem in Vienna, Austria

The association Kinderhilfe Bethlehem, which is active in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Austria, is presided over by the theologian Sibylle Hardegger, and Sybille Oetliker heads the office in Lucerne . The association was founded in the 1960s from the Caritas associations in Switzerland and Germany.

Donation income

In Switzerland, the work of Children's Aid Bethlehem is supported by the Swiss Bishops' Conference. Since 1964, she has recommended the Catholic parishes to collect the Christmas collections every year during midnight mass for the benefit of Children's Aid Bethlehem. Since Kinderhilfe has its finances and bookkeeping audited annually by an independent trust company, the donation financing remains transparent.

Members of the Children's Aid Bethlehem Association are associations, Swiss and German dioceses and private individuals.

Caritas Baby Hospital

The Caritas Baby Hospital is the only hospital in the West Bank that specializes in pediatric medicine. Children's Aid Bethlehem is its sponsoring association. The hospital's catchment area is the southern West Bank, where around 325,000 children under the age of 14 live. About 50,000 children are treated annually; most of them can be cared for on an outpatient basis, around 5,000 children are admitted as inpatients per year (as of 2018).

Year after year, thousands of donors visit this unique children's hospital in the West Bank . It is also regularly visited by prominent representatives from politics, business and religion, including in 2003 by the former German President Johannes Rau , in 2008 by the President of the Palestinian Authority , Mahmud Abbas , and on May 13, 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Projects supported

Depending on its financial means, Children's Aid Bethlehem supports a number of development projects every year which aim to empower women and children. It also provides emergency aid in disaster and war zones. The engagement is limited to Bethlehem and the region (Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Principles. Retrieved March 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Projects - kinderhilfe-bethlehem.ch. Retrieved January 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Find certified aid organizations | Donate correctly with Zewo. Retrieved January 8, 2019 .
  4. ↑ kinderhilfe-bethlehem.de. Retrieved January 8, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c Klaus Röllin: The heart must have hands . Ed .: Children's Aid Bethlehem. 1st edition. DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg GmbH, 2012, ISBN 978-3-936300-77-2 , p. 23.25.26 .
  6. ^ Caritas Baby Hospital - Jordi + Partner AG. Retrieved January 16, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Board of Directors. Retrieved March 8, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Erich Aschwanden: Help for the children in the birthplace of Jesus | NZZ . December 25, 2014, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed on January 16, 2019]).
  9. ↑ a b Downloads - kinderhilfe-bethlehem.ch. Retrieved January 16, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Members - kinderhilfe-bethlehem.ch. Retrieved January 16, 2019 .
  11. ↑ PCBS. Retrieved January 16, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Caritas Baby Hospital with a stronger focus on specialization. Retrieved January 16, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Projects - kinderhilfe-bethlehem.ch. Retrieved January 16, 2019 .