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Melkite Pastoral Center
Products:
Embroidered bags, cushion covers, and tapestries
Beneficiaries: 300 women from 8 villages in Ramallah area
The Melkite Pastoral Center was established in 1988 in the
city of Ramallah during the first Intifada (the Palestinian
uprising) by the sisters of Greek Catholic (Melkite) Church
Center. The Center was created as a response to the need and
the wishes expressed by women to earn income to supply their
household budget when most of the men in the community became
imprisoned or unemployed in the uprising.
The Melkite Church provides facilities where women from
nearby villages obtain fabric and thread, which they take home
to embroider, in exchange for a salary. The products are
inspired by traditional designs that decorate Palestinian
women’s dresses, and symbolically represent the hills, trees,
and flowers of the country.
As the villages suffer from high unemployment, poor
infrastructure and a lack of social services, the women’s income
from the embroidery work means a great deal to impoverished
families. Their work affords schooling for the children,
medicine for the elderly, and daily needs such as food and
clothing.
During the current Intifada, the movement of
Palestinians has been severely restricted by the Israel army who
isolated communities with a series of roadblocks and military
checkpoints. It has become extremely difficult for women in the
villages to reach the Center to pick up and bring back their
work. In addition, the construction of the Separation Wall has
isolated the Ramallah area from Jerusalem and its tourists, the
Center’s vital market. What used to be a half-hour drive
between the two major Palestinian cities has become an
impossible journey for most people and a painful ordeal for a
lucky few with permits, through the notorious checkpoints and
dangerous detour roads.
Sunbula has managed to bring the Center’s products
with the help of international volunteers who, with freedom of
movement not granted to Palestinians, transport the products
from Ramallah to our Craft Shop in Jerusalem.
Contact Melkite Pastoral Center:
P.O. Box 265, Ramallah
West Bank, Palestine (via Israel)
Tel/Fax: +972-(0)2-298-5797
pal.embr@palnet.com
View their products on Sunbula Online Craft Market |
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| Women from Ramallah area villages gather at the Melkite Pastoral Center for embroidery work. |
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| Samia, one of the eight seamstresses with Melkite Pastoral Center, sews embroidered fabric pieces into coin purses. |
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| Sarieh, a veteran embroiderer from the village of Ein Arik, near Ramallah |
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| Ein Arik is one of the 8 villages where families benefit economically from the embroidery work by Melkite Pastoral Center. |
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