Paul Calvert spoke with George Abdo, Deputy Director of the Shepherd Society

George Abdo

The Shepherd Society was established in Bethlehem in June 1996 when several Palestinian pastors and Christian leaders felt called to extend Christ's love in a practical way to those in need within their community. As the charitable arm of Bethlehem Bible College the goal of the Shepherd Society is to provide a means for the global community and Christians worldwide to encourage and financially assist the struggling Palestinian people in the West Bank, supporting families in need via seven different relief programmes including food parcel distribution, medical aid, school tuition assistance and family sponsorships. Paul Calvert spoke with George Abdo, Deputy Director of the Shepherd Society to find out more.

Paul: What is the Shepherd Society?

George: The Shepherd Society is a humanitarian organisation and is the social arm of Bethlehem Bible College.

Paul: When were you started and why?

George: The Shepherd Society started in 1996 and the idea of the Shepherd Society was when a group of pastors and ministers saw that there is a need for the people in Bethlehem who are suffering from the hard economic situation. They saw that there are a lot of people who used to come to Bethlehem Bible College asking for help and after they saw the number of people who came to the Bible College increase they decided to start the Shepherd Society.

Paul: What sort of projects do you do here?

George: We have some projects. Some of them are available and some of them are not available. The projects that are not available, they are not available because of the budget. As you know that the economic situation all around the world is not easy and some of the organisations and Christian organisations and churches who used to support us, have decreased the amount of money that they used to send to the Shepherd Society because of the finance situation, but let me tell you about the projects that we have.

The first project is called Family to Family Sponsorship. We have families from outside the country in America, Europe and other countries all over the world and they support and sponsor the poorest of poor in Bethlehem. They support them financially and some of them send $20 and some of them send $100. It's up to them how the Lord puts on their hearts to support the needy people of Bethlehem.

The second project we have is called Food Distribution. During the year and around Christmas and Easter the Shepherd Society in co-operation with Christian Aid Ministries in Ohio in the States, distribute food parcels to the needy people in Bethlehem and we distribute these parcels as a gift from Christ.

The third project is called Medical Treatment Project. Here in the Palestinian Authority it's not easy for the people to find all the treatments they could need and also not all the people have governmental medical insurance. Sometimes it's not easy for the people who have the medical insurance to find this kind of treatment and for this reason the people come to the Shepherd Society. We help those needy people sometimes with the cost of the surgeries or all kinds of x-rays and medicines and the lab tests.

Also we have a project called School Tuition Project. Here in Palestinian Authority there are three kinds of schools, the governmental schools where they get just a little amount as tuition and the United Nations schools, which are related to the United Nations because we have many people who hold the refugee card; also they just charge a little amount of money for the school tuition. The third kind of schools is the private schools and the majority of private schools in Bethlehem are Christian schools. The tuition costs are higher than the tuition among the governmental and the United Nations schools, but the School Tuition Project is now currently stopped because we don't have a budget for this kind of project.

Also we have a project called Utilities; like the electric and water bills. Here if you don't pay for two or three bills, especially the electricity company will come and disconnect the wire. We could by the grace of God re-connect the wire for many people who have stayed for four or five days with no electricity. At the moment this project is not available because of the budget.

We also have a project called Job Creation. One of the problems we have is there is a lot of people who have skills but they don't have opportunity to work. What we do is sometimes we place them with temporary jobs to work five to 10 days and we pay them their wages.

Also we have another project called The Small Businesses Project. Sometimes we meet people who have skills but they don't have the budget to have a small business at their house, so in co-operation with Christian Aid Ministries in Ohio in the United States we support those needy people with the equipment to start their business. We sponsored two widows with equipment for a baking project and three sewing machines so they could have an income to provide the needs of their children and family. Also we supported two families with sheep projects so they can use the sheep to benefit from the milk and they can also have an income for their living.