Impact Report

GIVING IMPACT IMPACT REPORT 2024-2025

A message from our Chief Executive Officer

Who we are

Thank you!

Our Vision

Our Mission

2024-2025 has been an immensely difficult year for Christians in the Holy Land. Your support and the resilience of the people working hard on the ground to help has been immense, highlighting what we can achieve when we work together.

For Christians to remain and thrive in the Holy Land so they may build just and lasting pathways to peace in the land where Jesus walked, serving the common good of the entire region.

Our mission is to secure and sustain the Christian community in the West Bank, Gaza, Israel and Jordan. We directly provide practical support with everyday living costs to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We invest in their future by providing access to education and by backing small businesses.

We have all been heartbroken to witness the continued devastation and loss of life in Gaza, alongside the increasing hardship and impoverishment suffered. The reality of travel restrictions, unemployment and fear and mistrust of neighbours is devastating.

We have been humbled by the contributions from so many of you. We have heard directly from our Christians brothers and sisters in the West Bank how much your prayers and thoughts mean to them, knowing they are not going through this situation alone.

www.friendsoftheholyland.org.uk

We have witnessed the power of hope in our work, for example in returning dignity to those out of work, providing humanitarian relief where it is needed, upskilling young people for the future and taking care of the elderly.

We can only achieve these programmes with your committed help in prayer, in giving and endorsing our mission to your network. To each and every one who has supported us in any way, thank you.

Brendan Metcalfe, CEO

In the support of this mission, we build closer relationships between the wider Christian Community and our brothers and sisters living in the Holy Land.

Our Team We operate a small team to achieve a wide reach in the Holy Land and rely strongly on the help of many volunteers across the UK. We expanded our teams in the UK and in the Holy Land. We now have an office in Ramallah while maintaining our office in Bethlehem, allowing us to better serve the regions around Jenin and Zababdeh.

GIVING IMPACT

The year in numbers

We operate across three key grant strands:

During the financial year 2024-2025, we raised an amazing £1.6 million – Thank you. A large proportion of this figure was due to a legacy, the funds for which will not be received until late 2025.

44%

Income by source 2024-2025

HUMANITARIAN: aid for immediate need

17%

15% 7%

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Humanitarian projects include Family Support, Ad-hoc, JACC, Gaza aid, medical.

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nurturing talent and entrepreneurship for longer-term sustainability

Development projects include: School fees, vocational scholarships, small business grant funding and water.

HEALING:

restoring dignity and community support Healing includes: Trauma support, School of Joy, St Martha’s House, Job creation and Summer Camps.

Grant strand spending 2024-2025 HUMANITARIAN: 22%

Our impact - Where we spent our funds During the financial year 2024-2025, conditions in the Holy Land continued to worsen, with more families facing destitution thanks to rising costs, high unemployment and worsening travel restrictions.

We have been guided in our grant spending by our Holy Land Committee, a team on the ground with strong community links who identify and direct funding to Christians who need it most.

This year we distributed £935,000 in grants, working hard to alleviate the challenges faced by the Christian communities we support across the Holy Land.

Our bank account in Bethlehem means we can transfer money directly to our office team there, ensuring that your kind gifts reached Christians in the Holy land easily.

www.friendsoftheholyland.org.uk

DEVELOPMENT:

HEALING: 46%

DEVELOPMENT: 32%

GIVING IMPACT

Highlights of projects from 2024-2025 HUMANITARIAN

JACC (Jerusalem African Community Centre) Jerusalem is home to around 3,000 African refugees and stateless people, most of them families, including 650 children and teenagers born in Israel. They constitute one of the largest Christian communities in Jerusalem, but do not have formal recognition of legal status, where state services, basic legal rights and protections are not afforded.

Friends of the Holy Land funding has enabled JACC to sustain and expand legal aid services, psychosocial support, humanitarian relief, and community-based programs to meet the urgent and heightened needs of a vulnerable, mostly Christian population in Jerusalem. We are helping fund a range of services such as legal aid, food packages, temporary housing, support groups, mentoring, after-school provision for children, youth engagement in churches, literacy skills for single mothers and community support initiatives.

DEVELOPMENT Vocational training

Investing in young people and their future is essential to the long-term future of the Christian community in the Holy Land. Our programmes focus on training with a strong employability record, in fields where there is always a need for those skills, in particular nursing, IT and trade skills. Our young people graduate with the prospects to support themselves and their families in the future, allowing them to see the hope in remaining in their homeland.

HEALING Job creation

So many in the Christian community depend on pilgrimage for their livelihood, yet tourism has been devastated by the pandemic closely followed by two years of war. In the West Bank, there is little prospect for employment, 95% of work visas for Israel have been cancelled for the 200,000 who used to travel to work there every day before October 7th, 2023. For those in Israel there is evidence of increased discrimination limiting their life choices. Commerce between Palestine and Isreal has decreased significantly. This has left so many Christian families destitute, having long ago used up their life savings to survive.

Our Job creation scheme was launched to give short-term employment to Christians and restore a little of their dignity, allowing them the opportunity to provide for their families once more.

In the words of Lahdo: “Losing my job in the tourism sector was devastating, especially with the decline in tourists due to the ongoing situation. The Job Creation Project has been a lifeline, allowing me to provide for my family once again. I am grateful for this opportunity, which has given me hope and stability during these difficult times.”

Anton studied three-phase electricity and says “This financial support means everything to me and my family. I can now pursue a trade that will help me secure steady work and improve our living conditions. I’m so grateful for this chance.” www.friendsoftheholyland.org.uk

GIVING IMPACT

Investing in a future for Christians in the Holy Land Together, we are a community of Christians united in support of our brothers and sisters in the birthplace of our faith, helping them to remain and thrive.

Thank you for helping us invest in their future, together we are making a difference to so many Christians in very challenging circumstances.

Priorities for 2025-2026 Our plans for 2025-2026 continue to be guided by the needs of the Christian communities we support, but will carry on our growing focus on development through training, education, employment and entrepreneurship alongside humanitarian support and healing initiatives. We will do all we can to strengthen the community, giving them the tools to survive and thrive and most of all, fanning their hope for the future.

Friends of the Holy Land is a UK Registered Charity (Charity Number 1202568).

Registered Office Farmer Ward Road, Kenilworth, Warwickshire CV8 2DH T 01926 512980 E office@friendsoftheholyland.org.uk www.friendsoftheholyland.org.uk