In addition to annual grants to the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, Pilgrims of Ibillin will also provide small  grants (usually in the range of $2500 to $8000) to Peace-Building projects in the Holy Land beyond Ibillin. The following priorities guide the choices:
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Pilgrims will invest in schools in the Holy Land that share the Mar Elias Educational Institutions’ goal of Building Peace on the Desktops of Students.
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We will give Peace-building grants to support Palestinian Christians’ efforts to provide meaningful jobs and livable circumstances so that members of this community can remain and thrive in their homeland.
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We will use our Peace-building grants for unique projects where Pilgrims’ contribution clearly makes a key difference. We prefer that our funding will help something happen on its own, rather than being “one drop in a large bucket” of funding.
2009 Peace-Building Grants will include:
$5000 St. George Melkite Church Kindergarten, Zababdeh
$5000 Friends' School, Ramallah - Scholarships
$3500 Al-Haneen Theatre, Lotof Nweisser, Nazareth
$2500 Leadership Development Program, Diyar Consortium, Rev. Mitri Raheb, Bethlehem
$2000 Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Bishop Munib Younan, Jerusalem
$5,000 Seraj Library Project, new library serving communities near Ramallah
$5,000 Open House PreSchool Program, Ramle
Click here to donate to any of these Peace-Building Projects. Thanks!
 St. George Kindergarten Project: St. George’s is a Melkite Parish in the Christian village of Zababdeh near Jenin in the West Bank. Abuna Firas Khoury Diab has begun sewing and soap projects to provide jobs, strengthen the local economy, and encourage families to remain there. He is eager to start a kindergarten adjacent to the church for the preschoolers of Zababdeh, Christian and Muslim together. This project was begun by Volunteers in Mission from the US in 2008.
We are impressed with the sincerity and vision of this young priest. He was assigned to the parish in 2002 after the village had been without a Melkite priest for 17 years. He is rebuilding the parish and says that while prayer is essential, priests who pray without addressing the needs of the community and its people are “liars.”
http://www.stgeorgeinzababdeh.com/index.shtml
Granted: $5000 to finish construction of a kindergarten.
The Friends Schools in Ramallah have a long history of serving children and youth in that city and surrounding areas. They provide kindergarten through high school classes, offering high academic standards as well as an “ethics program” that develops the Quaker values of respect, equality, and non-violence. Their program also includes a 3-year environmental awareness curriculum. We felt a great similarity to the vision and goals of MEEI. Shadi Othman, the school engineer and project manager and an alumnus, spoke eloquently about how the program “builds personality on all levels.”
Friends - Scholarships. Because 80% of the schools’ budget comes from tuition, the cost of tuition is high: from $1700 to $3000 per year depending on the grade level. Twenty per cent of the student body get financial aid, all based on need. No student gets more than 70% tuition assistance. The school struggles to get enough scholarship funding to assure that less-privileged students have access to the excellent education offered here. Granted: $5000 for scholarships
AL-Haneen Theatre, Lotof Nweisser (Nazareth). Lotof is an actor-producer who goes to schools throughout Israel doing puppet presentations and one-person dramas encouraging dignity, respect, and acceptance. He has adapted “King Lear” for the Palestinian experience. See www.alhaneen.org.
Granted: $3500 for development of a play based on Archbishop Chacour's book We Belong to the Land.
Young Adult Leadership Program, Diyar Consortium (Bethlehem) The program is directed by the Rev. Mitri Raheb, pastor of Ev. Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and author of I Am a Palestinian Christian and Bethlehem Besieged. Twenty-four young adults, 22-29 years old, will meet weekly for 10 months to build skills in three main areas: Leadership skills (communication, vision, planning), Spiritual Growth (Bible study, spirituality, psychological self-understanding), and Managerial Skills (administration, budgeting, fundraising). Dr. Raheb stated that, “Much of the mess we are in is due to the lack of leadership.” He places such a high priority on this leadership program that he has made a commitment to turn down most international speaking invitations in order to have time to invest here.
Granted: $5,000 in 2009.
 Scholarships for students in Jerusalem Lutheran School. Bishop Younan is Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, located in the Old City of Jerusalem just yards from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Among the many ministries of the ELCJHL are schools that embody ideals similar to those at MEEI, including the Al-Mahaba Kindergarten, Jerusalem.
See www.elcjhl.org /Educational Ministry.
Granted: $2000 for scholarships for ELCJHL scholarships.
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Peace-Building Grants
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