During the month of December, we not only gathered as a staff to celebrate Christmas with home visits, caroling, and meals shared together. We also took advantage of Teachers’ Day—our country’s national day of teacher appreciation—to show our own staff at the Seeds of Hope School how grateful we are for them.
While we’re grateful for all our incredible teachers, we wanted to go out of our way to encourage and support a few staff members who really needed it this year. Specifically, at our school, 97% of our staff are women. Of those women, many are the sole breadwinners for their families. This fact is very rare in Jericho as most employment opportunities for women don’t pay a living wage that could support a family. Seeds of Hope is different.
However, with economic struggles brought on by the war, some of our staff members are struggling.
Rula works at Seeds of Hope to help supplement her husband’s income. When he lost his job at the start of the war, unbeknownst to us, their family fell into debt. Eventually, her husband was imprisoned because he couldn’t pay what he owed, leaving Rula to provide for their two children alone.
Amani is another staff member with three children. When her husband was out of work for many months because of the war, he traveled to Dubai to look for work as an engineer. He has still not found a suitable job, so their family has been apart for months. Amani is living with her mother and working to make ends meet, but she certainly cannot afford to travel to Dubai to see her husband and bring their family together.
In the lead-up to Christmas, while neither woman was very public about how difficult things were, we learned about Rula and Amani’s situations and knew we needed to help. At our staff Christmas party, we planned a secret surprise. Both women received secret notes from “Santa” to help wrap gifts for their team members. When they saw the gifts, they discovered they were actually for their own children.
Rula and Amani are both Muslim, but many of our Muslim staff have enjoyed celebrating aspects of Christmas thanks to Seeds of Hope’s influence. Of course, their children wanted gifts when they learned about the tradition, but both mothers knew they couldn’t afford such an expense.
We wanted Rula and Amani to be able to surprise their children with gifts and have the pride of being able to brighten their children’s spirits in such a difficult time. Additionally, we gave each woman another special present: a small monetary gift to allow Amani to visit her husband on a short trip and give Rula the funds to pay her rent and avoid the possibility of eviction.
Check out some of Seeds of Hope’s Christmas activities, including caroling, visiting elderly neighbors, and giving two of our teachers—Rula and Amani—a little extra special cheer!
The smiles on both their faces say it all. “You can’t imagine how much I needed someone to comfort me,” said Amani about that day. “Seeds of Hope came in at the right time to bring joy to my heart when I needed it most. The financial gift meant a lot to me, but your emotional gift will stay with me forever. I cried—not because I was sad—because you reminded me that there is still goodness in this world.”
In addition to special gifts for these two women, we’re working on ways to support all of our staff during this challenging time. They are the heartbeat of everything we do at Seeds of Hope and the reason that we can impact countless lives across our community.
Most of our female staff are mothers, and their children attend Seeds of Hope. While they already receive a discount on their tuition, we’re working on collecting funds that will allow us to lower tuition even more for the families that are struggling. If you’re interested in donating, we’re aiming to raise $48,000 for this initiative.
Thank you for your continued support as we look for ways to rebuild the joy and hope in our city after over a year of violence and war. We couldn’t do what we do without each and every one of you!
