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

As the Shepherd Society, because we are a part of the Palestinian community in Bethlehem we are trying not to focus how to aid the people, but how to develop the community; like for example what we do when we purchase the food to distribute the food parcels, we give the priority for the local products of food such as pasta, pastry, olive oil, canned food and other kinds of products so in this way we can achieve two goals. First we can aid the people and also we can develop the economy here. We have a lot of people here who are unemployed.

Paul: How many families are you helping at the moment?

George: We have more than four thousand families that the Shepherd Society takes care of. You may know that many of the families get more than one help and for this reason the number of help that the Shepherd Society has helped till today is more than 16,000 helps.

Paul: That's a lot of people you're helping. Is all the aid that you give to these people crucial aid? Is it really needed and desperate?

George: Yes. We don't just help anyone who comes to the Shepherd Society. We do the procedures. They come here and we have a system on the computer. They fill in the application and after that we go and visit the family to have enough information about the family and we give the report; two reports to the administration of the Shepherd Society and discuss the case and give our recommendation. Let me tell you that more than 95% of the people who come to the Shepherd Society, the Shepherd Society support them.

Paul: Is there a lot of poverty in Bethlehem?

George: Yes, there is a lot of poverty in Bethlehem. Let me just clarify a very important thing for you; many people who come to the Shepherd Society say we have job opportunity and we work but the problem is the income of their work is not enough to provide for the needs of their children. The average budget of a family with six persons, they need for one month is at least $1000, to pay for the rent, utilities, school tuition, food and the other expenses, but the average monthly income for the families is approximately 3000 shekels, which is around $750. This is the maximum income, so you can just imagine how can those people manage themselves with this small amount of income to provide the needs of their families?

Paul: So this isn't just people who don't have a job, this is people who do have a job, but still can't survive?

George: Yes. You know there are three or four kinds of people here. There is a kind of people who they don't work, but they are not in need. Another type of people is they work but the income is not enough, so they are in need and there is a people who don't work and they are in need and for this reason we don't just judge the people, or the clients who come to the Shepherd Society that if you work, 'ok we are sorry we will not be able to help you, or if you don't work we will help you'. This is not the procedure that we do. We go and visit the people; we do a case study about the family and then we decide.

Paul: Are there many children who go hungry?

George: The people that are suffering, especially the children, especially the new born or one year or two years that need milk. This is the problem that we have, we have many people that come to the Shepherd Society asking help for milk for children, but sometimes we cannot intervene with these cases because the milk is not cheap here. For this reason we can't help all the cases that come to the Shepherd Society.

Paul: You are a Christian organisation so is it just Christians that you help?

George: We are a Christian organisation but let me clarify to you, the Shepherd Society is not an organisation only, the Shepherd Society is a ministry for Jesus and for this reason our main goal is to show Jesus' love to others. The very important thing I would like to tell you that for the Christians we became the minority here so in our studies with the Christians we have found that they are suffering because of the hard economic situation, but for us we help anyone who is in need and for this reason many people, Christians or Muslims, they give the glory to the Lord.

Paul: You said before that you help in tuition fees. Is it expensive to study here and does that put a big burden on families?