To watch the boys playing music in their new music room click here

 

The boys of Jeel Al Amal Boys’ Home in Bethany wish to thank Fr. Derek and Sybille White, who have just celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in London, and Fr. Tony Axe and the parishioners of the Roman Catholic parish of Melbourne and Castle Donington in Derby, because together, they have raised £5,000 to equip a music room in the home. We, and the boys, are enormously grateful to supporters such as these who keep the work of the McCabe Educational Trust ongoing. 

 

The McCabe Educational Trust is proud to be associated with the boys  home at Jeel Al Amal.

We support the school with a monthly remittance which is designed to give some stability to their everyday budget. We don’t sponsor children individually but rather provide regular funds so that basic needs such as food and shelter are met.

In addition, we actively fund-raise for specific projects to enhance the quality of life of the boys;  our annual summer school in conjunction with Unipal is eagerly anticipated and a computer room is now up-and-running, and first tentative online links have been made with a school in Sussex. Last year we helped refurbish bathroom facilities.

Our current focus is more mundane and very messy! The sewage system of the home is obsolete and when it rains, the boys playground is inundated. A grant of £12,000 from the Trust is paying for the complete system to be replaced.  At the same time, the playground will be levelled and re-surfaced.

Now, a typical MET story !

Fr. Derek White organised several pilgrimages with McCabe and always visited Jeel as part of his pilgrimage itinerary. He saw the need and responded. Celebrating their Golden Wedding anniversary, presents were banned and donations instead requested for Jeel. In addition, cake sales were organised and a knitting group sold their creations and altogether the magnificent sum of £2,185 was raised.

Fr. Tony Axe, once Professor of Archaeology at Jerusalem’s Ecole Biblique and now priest in the parish of Melbourne & Castle Donington in Derby was thinking the same way.  Each year they have a Lent appeal and turned to us for inspiration. Previously they purchased an industrial washing machine for the Al Shurooq Blind School in Bethlehem. This time we suggested putting their fund-raising efforts alongside Fr. Derek’s and focusing on the provision of musical instruments to establish a music room at Jeel Al Amal.

Fr. Tony’s parishes raised the magnificent sum of £1,700. Gift-aid was added and a combined grant of £5,000 was sent to the home.

Alistair McCabe visited the home recently with a delegation from the Diocese of Southwark. Not only did they see the embryo music department taking shape and were royally entertained by the boys pictured here, but Southwark Diocese have now short-listed Jeel Al Amal as a possible recipient of the Bishop’s 2013 Lent Call.

So, the word is spread and the work continues 

 

Donations Summary

For more than twenty years, the McCabe Educational Trust has been creating partnerships with inspiring people we have met on pilgrimage.

A special Thank You to McCabe pilgrims who helped us raise £19,165 during October contributing to a total of  £175,982 raised so far this year!

With your help, we will continue helping those in need we encounter on our travels.