THE PROGRAM
The Franciscan Boys Home
The Franciscan Boys Home in Bethlehem is one of many social services run through the Custody. The Home, founded in 2007 as an affiliate to Terra Sancta College, sought to open a new window of hope and a lifeline to a bright future.
ABOUT
Principal Purpose and Mission
Today, in the birthplace of Jesus Christ, Christian families struggle with all kinds of local, personal, social and community needs. Like anywhere else in the world, parents, children and families suffer through hard times.
FFHL strives to lighten the suffering of our Christian brothers and sisters by assisting them in their daily lives and giving them opportunities often sought elsewhere.
That is exactly what our Bethlehem Boys Home does. We meet ordinary human need and suffering with absolute respect and unconditional love so that every boy that is struggling knows he belongs and is welcome.
It is unfortunate that family situations sometimes evolve into significant hardships. In a fragile land where social and political upheavals are sadly standard situations, it is hardly surprising to see instability spill out into local families. Over the years, because of the caring charity of friends and benefactors, FFHL has attempted to ensure that the instability does not become a permanent condition of hopeless despair.
To Protect and Restore, through Faith and Charity
There is much deeply instilled pride in the residents of this Holy Land – for they have descended from the Christians of Jesus’ time. Their fragility and vulnerability has not caused their faith to waver. None of this is alien to God. Nothing families suffer is alien to God. Nothing we need is far from God.
Our Bethlehem Boys Home, for children age 6 through 18, is a caring place where neighborhood youth can feel the safety and nurture needed to survive. It is a place where skilled staff assumes careful watch, accompanying each boy, who for any number of reasons in a given moment is not able to live permanently in the house of his parents. The Home offers a known alternative using dignity and respect to calm troubled waters working toward developing healthy family relationships, addressing personal issues and attempting to create as much normalcy as possible within the community.
Everyone at the Bethlehem Boys Home strives to create an environment that promotes health, happiness and understanding – all guided by faith and charity. Everything is done to ensure that each boy reaches his potential.
The Goal
The goal of the Bethlehem Boys Home is to welcome, protect and restore each boy’s life. The purpose is to provide the most basic environment where he can flourish amidst needs. The mission is consistent with everything FFHL has committed itself to all these years: to safeguard the Christian presence in the Holy Land in the 21st century. We belong to the community as they belong to us. We are God’s people in the Holy Land today.
Franciscan Lead Christian Values
The Home operates on the principles of hard work and Christian values: respecting human rights, living in love and practicing repeated forgiveness according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, and the call of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans).
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Program Resources
Learn even more about this program by viewing our supplemental materials. To make an online tax exempt donation to this program, complete the form below.
Program Video
Program Brochure
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Give to our Boys Home Program
You are making a difference in the Holy Land! The donation levels below illustrate some examples of the ways we use philanthropic gifts to support our programs.
