“Reviving hope and empowering Christian women and youth in their homeland
Introduction
The Christian community is the only community in the Holy Land that has been declining dramatically from 19% in 1948 to less than 1% in 2024. Political unrest and socioeconomic challenges became chronic in our context, consecutive calamities have been taking place in the region, these nonstop challenges have been affecting the fragile Christian presence in the Holy Land, families tend to emigrate to Europe, America and Canada to establish normal lives for their traumatized children. Despite all the said hardships, several Christians opted to stay in their homeland and to stand tall for their faith as they see themselves the descendants of the first Christian community in the world. The Church – represented by the Latin Patriarchate - has the ultimate responsibility to maintain a vivid Christian presence especially by focusing on empowering youth, the future of the Holy Land Church.
Local Church institutions led by the Latin Patriarchate will face a turning point as this is the right time for empowering youth generations to be able to deal with the strict blockade imposed on the West Bank cities. The total disconnection between these cities and the Jerusalem institutions who used to be a major employer to the Christian community is a major challenge facing the local Church.
AFAQ is the Arabic word for horizons or prospects. The LPJ initiated this program around three years ago in response to the deep humanitarian crisis that hit the whole world following the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Holy Land Christians depend largely on the tourism sector, the living conditions continue to be challenging to the local community especially for youth who became out of options and hopeless. The LPJ -through this viable program - managed to revive hope and design need-based programs to support the people.
Main objectives
- Increasing Christian youth self-employment, through supporting micro businesses, small entrepreneurial start-ups, and youth training.
- Advancing employment opportunities by offering job placement opportunities, and vocational/technical training for fresh and unemployed graduates, prioritizing women and youth from targeted Christian communities.
How the AFAQ program works:
The AFAQ project comes in four different categories which have been supporting several Christians to become economically independent and thus attaining self-realization:
First: Internship program:
The program will select a group of qualified graduates and provide them with a six-month internship period where they can enhance their experience, skills and open their horizons. The proposed allowance for each graduate will be set at 500-$600. These internships will prepare graduates for the job market, as well as attract prospective employers.
Second: Vocational training:
The increasing unemployment rate among Christian youth in the Holy Land is caused by several factors beginning with the lack of guidance and little support students receive in high school and university in regard to career options and choices including the TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) sector. The proposed program will offer high-quality training at several accredited institutions that will open new professional paths for unemployed people.
Third: Supporting existing businesses.
The LPJ wishes to acquire the financial capacity to provide small to medium sized grants to help existing Christian businesses expand and sustain its operations, especially that the Palestinians cities such as Bethlehem and Ramallah have been disconnected from Jerusalem.
Fourth: Establishing new startups and encouraging entrepreneurship
The LPJ aims at encouraging the creation of small to medium sized Christian businesses and startups to stimulate innovation and boost local jobs for the unemployed and foster the coordination between the newly created Christian businesses.
How can you help?
- 500-600 USD can help one young Christian get an internship opportunity for one month through job placement to advance her/ his skills, experience and advance employability.
- A grant of 1000-1500 USD can help one Christian get a quality vocational training to learn a new skill, discover a new career path and boost her/ his employability.
- A grant of 2500-3500 USD can help improve an existing business for one Christian family and to support a new startup for youth.