"They need a network, because otherwise, they will always be nobody’s children: they will always be the marginalized, the abandoned."
In Bethlehem, there is a home that welcomes children from all over the West Bank. It is called SOS Village—a place where children with histories of loss and trauma can find people who care for them and build a community where they truly belong.
A year ago, following the outbreak of the new wave of conflict after October 7, 2023, SOS Village took in several displaced children from Gaza: “SOS Village Palestine had two houses: one in Bethlehem that welcomed children from across the West Bank, and another in the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, which housed children from Gaza,” explains Annalisa Greco, our project manager in Bethlehem. “We are talking about approximately sixty children hosted in Bethlehem and around eighty who were staying in Rafah.” Today, the Rafah facility, along with all its children and staff, has relocated to Bethlehem. This is how Pro Terra Sancta came into contact with them, leading to a fruitful collaboration over time.
The Collaboration Between Pro Terra Sancta and SOS Village
“We had been aware of SOS Village for a long time, but no particular forms of collaboration had ever emerged,” says Annalisa. “Our dialogue intensified last year when the children from Gaza arrived because the project director saw in us a possible solution to a growing problem.”
“The issue was integrating these children into the context of Bethlehem. We are talking about kids carrying deep trauma, having lived for months—from October 2023 until the following April—in an open war zone, and suddenly finding themselves in Bethlehem, where the community is more open compared to Gaza, and the lifestyle is very different.” The effects of the war in Bethlehem are also different from those in Gaza: the need to adapt to a new, diverse, and open world—while carrying the habits of fear and loss—created a difficult gap for these children to bridge.
“The goal was to make them feel at home, even if only temporarily. This necessity is what truly initiated the collaboration between us and SOS Village.” There was a specific reason why SOS turned to Pro Terra Sancta to pursue this goal: “Pro Terra Sancta works extensively in cultural heritage education. We create numerous projects aimed at fostering integration and intercultural and interpersonal dialogue, often through artistic and cultural activities. The themes that emerged after the arrival of the children from Gaza are deeply aligned with the core mission of our association.”
Building a Community
Thus began a journey that forged deep connections, built through moments of sharing and discovery. Annalisa explains how working with the children at SOS, although secondary compared to SOS's own efforts—mainly focused on helping children overcome trauma—has been a valuable experience for both the children and the local staff at Pro Terra Sancta.
“The activities are very simple; they are not intended to solve the children’s psychological issues but rather to create relationships, make them feel integrated into the community, and highlight the strengths of each child. We organized trips to explore the West Bank, visited Bethlehem’s central market to buy ingredients for cooking together, and planned artistic activities to create something beautiful and therapeutic for the children. These may seem like small things, but they genuinely help build deep relationships.”
A concrete example happened just a few days ago when “we visited the SOS facility with some people who wanted to see it. There, we met a child named Ahmed, who is not part of the group we work with because he is too young—he is around ten years old, while the children we engage with are all twelve and older. Despite this, he knows all of us, at least by sight, and when he saw us there, he ran toward us, started talking and playing, and kept telling my colleague Roni: ‘You have to tell the director [of SOS Village] that I have to come on Friday too, because I want to join the activities! It’s not fair that I can’t participate just because I’m not twelve yet!’”
A Tight-Knit Network
There are many rewarding moments: “It’s wonderful to see these relationships forming, especially because they are the result of the hard work we put in at the beginning alongside the SOS staff.” The initial phase of the collaboration involved both organizations participating in a training session with a clinical psychologist. “The idea was to share experiences and suggestions, discuss what we might observe in the children, and learn how to respond to the situations we might encounter. Anything we notice, we then communicate to SOS’s case managers—each child has one, an assigned social worker who knows their full story.”
Thus, there is constant communication not only between us and the children but also between the staff of both organizations. This creates a tight-knit network, a family-like environment where children—whether from Bethlehem, the rest of the West Bank, or Gaza—can truly begin to feel at home, surrounded by people who care for them. “They need a network, because otherwise, they will always be nobody’s children: they will always be the marginalized, the abandoned.”
The idea is to have them participate in a community center, engaging in activities: “so they can meet people outside the facility where they live, start feeling and truly becoming part of a community. That’s the most beautiful thing—seeing how, over time, when they come to us, they move around comfortably, greeting everyone left and right. They feel at home.”
