30 December 2008

The Childrens' Christmas Party

Our Head of the House - Sr Katherina giving warmth and love to the baby of the House.

Our Spokesmen

Our three Kings


Sandra, Benni and Nickole were our spokesmen and the teachers also took an active part.
At the childrens' Christmas Party, our '3 Kings' gave out a gift to each child.
The Franciscans' played and sang for us, while the children accompanied them by playing the bells in harmony and according to the correct rhythm.
The St Vincent choir, with Vinzenz as conductor and trainer, also sang. One of our children accompanied them.
Yaela, our music therapist, sang with one of the children accompanying her.


24 December 2008

Adult Christmas Party

The Sisters of St Vincent always give a party to all the staff and volunteers in the House.
This year was a particularly nice party which everyone enjoyed so much. It took place on the 22nd December. Our Head of the House, Sr Katherina always opens this special event with warm words for everyone: '...As you know, Christmas is a special Feast for all Christians, but it's spirit is a great message for all the people with the good will to build a better world....'

Sister Katherina and the Party Spokesmen

Russian Dance

Our men volunteers putting on a ballet


Dancing and singing from different countries:



21 December 2008

Christmas greetings for you from the St. Vincent family Ein Kerem






It's Christmas each time that we wipe the tears of a child.

It's Christmas each time when we stop a war and open our hands.

It's Christmas each time that we lighten someone’s suffering.

It's Christmas on earth each day, because Christmas my friend is Love.


As the Christmas season approaches we would like to send you our greetings, wishing you and your family great peace and many blessings.

Here at St. Vincent's we are thanking the Lord for a good year one in which we have seen our children grow and advance. Most are teenagers, causing us to try to adjust to their needs as an older population.

Know that again when we go to celebrate the Eucharist at Shepherd's Field on Christmas Eve, that each of you and your families will be raised to the Lord in prayer.

As 2009 follows, may your year be one of health and nice happenings. Again know that you are not far away from our thought and prayers.

Sincerely,

Children, staff, volunteers and Sisters

Outings from December

We are happy to announce, that we now have two groups of volunteers who take the children twice a week for outings:
The one group is headed by Anne - a very special volunteer from Tel Aviv, and the other one is a group of four Franciscans.

Christmas 08

Preperations

Last week, the Christmas trees arrived in St. Vincent and are allready decorated. Also the children did their best to help with the decorations with Christmas music in the backround. Now everyone can enjoy the Chrismas spirit with the lighted tree in the corridor.


The traditional cooky baking before the Chrismas Party, took place on Friday. Here are are some pictures to bring back good tasty memories!

10 December 2008

The new Coffee House opened its door

On Monday, the 8th of December 08, the first children were guests of the new Coffee House of St. Vincent in the ancient room 3B. They enjoyed different kinds of tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Twice a week the Coffee House is opened for particular children.

The motivated staff of our Coffee House do a brilliant job.

The guests are enjoying the relaxing atmosphere and waiting for their drinks.

07 December 2008

Special Events Autumn and Winter '08

We celebrated the Jewish Feasts Rosh Hashanah and Suckot,...
... the Moslem feast Eid El Fiter...







...and Eid El Adcha.






And the sisters celebrated Halloween together with the volunteers - in special dress:





We also made and sold cookies in the Old City of Jerusalem







23 November 2008

We lost one of our dear children

Sadly we annaunce the death of our dear Hassan. After a long time of suffering and hospitalization he left us on the 22th of november 08.
We are all missing him a lot and hope that he rests in peace.

A picture of better times


19 November 2008

Summer 2008

In Summer 2008 we sent one child to a summer camp in the North. This child is part of a group called Beit Hagalgalim, [the House of Wheels], and during the year he attends their weekend programmes and in the summer he their summer camp. He had a great time.

The rest of our children took part in our Summer Programme in St Vincents.

Fun for young and old: An air castle in St. Vincent











The summer programme consisted of: Outings to the beach and to other fun places e.g. Mini Israel [from whom we received free tickets for all], Keif Tsuba [also gave us free entrance] etc

Mini Israel













We added additions to our summer programme calling them 'activity days' such as:

"sports day" with our own therapists and volunteer therapists from Germany


'icecream day' , with Sr. Susan, our afternoon teachers and therapists
















He was more than a professional dancer: Koen taught us wheelchair dancing AND painting.

The 'Sound of Music' corner is a quiet spot under the trees where the children can independently play musical instruments,' thanks to an Irish family who donated the instruments to us:














We also built a water fountain in our lower garden, which the children enjoyed very much, paddling in the water to cool off in the summer heat:












We made a special 'summer fun' corner for the more handicapped children, in a sheltered spot in the upper garden, thanks to a very special volunteer from the Netherlands - Esther!






























Farewells
Farewells are the most difficult parties we have in St Vincent. Its always hard to say good-bye.

At the end of the summer, we had to say good-bye to many of our dedicated volunteers. As always we express our gratitude to all the volunteers who helped man our house and not only took good care of the children, but also helped to create a homely warm atmosphere for them.














































Thanks and appreciation go out to all our volunteers who helped us over the years to make St Vincent Ein Kerem a Home for our handicapped children.