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at Ma'an lil-Hayat/L'Arche Bethlehem
News from Ma'an lil-Hayat
Ma’an lil-Hayat youth workers participate in TwidSA training in Croatia

CROATIA – From October 4-10, 2024, six youth workers from Ma’an lil-Hayat (Ibrahim, Bilal, Sahar, Yasmine,…

Ma’an lil-Hayat Newsletter for May – August 2024

BETHLEHEM – Please click on the image below to read the newsletter of Ma’an Lil-Hayat/ L’Arche…

Ma’an lil-Hayat welcomes head of Representative Office of Mexico in Palestine

On Monday, August 5, our community of Ma’an lil-Hayat welcomed Mr. Pedro Blanco Pérez, Head of…

TwidSA project: Empowering young change-makers

Launched in February 2024, a ground-breaking self-advocacy project titled “TwidSA: Together With and Without Disability in…

Ma’an lil-Hayat celebrates 15 years of presence in Bethlehem

Today, we celebrate a great milestone which is the 15th anniversary of Ma’an lil-Hayat/L’Arche Bethlehem in…

2nd TwidSA meeting

On June 20 and 21, 2024, the second workshop in the EU-funded TwidSA project took place…

background
Ma'an lil-Hayat in Dar Salah
In response to our growing awareness of the needs of people with disabilities in the area and the ever-increasing number of names of people waiting to be welcomed into our community, we opened a second day program in September 2016 in a village on the outskirts of Bethlehem. Ma’an lil-Hayat in Dar Salah was founded by four long-term core members (people with intellectual disabilities) and two assistants from Ma’an Bethlehem. Today, there are ten core members and three assistants, along with numerous volunteers and student interns who form this satellite community. The beginnings of this project are quite remarkable. When the village council of Dar Salah learned that we were hoping to open a center in the village, the head of the council offered us a recently renovated house to use rent-free for the following few years.

Ma’an lil-Hayat (Together for Life) is the first and only community project in Palestine that brings together people with and without intellectual disabilities to engage in creative textile-arts activities and share daily life together. Founded in August 2009, in Bethlehem, Ma’an lil-Hayat is a member of the International Federation of L’Arche Communities, created in 1964 in France (see www.larche.org). Members of Ma’an lil-Hayat use the wool of Bethlehem sheep to make felted wool ornaments, nativity scenes, and other unique gift items. The raw wool is purchased from women shepherds in a village on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

Ma’an lil-Hayat seeks to affirm and empower people with intellectual disabilities in their claim to adulthood. Meaningful, challenging activities encourage a sense of personal responsibility and genuine participation in the building of civil society.

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