The Bethlehem workshop for the blind, started in 1968, functions semi-autonomously with the support of the LWF. Blind workers manufacture a variety of cane products, brooms, and brushes.
The Workshops for the Blind aim to provide employment for blind workers, improve their standard of living, and help them to integrate into society. The products traditionally manufactured by the workshops were chosen because their manufacture is particularly suited to the skills of blind workers. These products, including brooms, baskets and rug-beaters, could also be manufactured by hand in such a way that they would rival factory-made goods of the same nature, and be sure to find a place in the local market (unlike similar projects in which workers from marginalized groups produce goods for sale to tourists, the Workshops for the Blind have always produced goods that are in demand in the local community).
The Workshops for the Blind were started in 1968 with workshops in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nablus, and Tulkarem. In these workshops, blind workers manufactured a variety of cane products (including baskets and rug-beaters) brooms and brushes. The workshops provided materials, training, and facilities for the workers to produce these products and offered instruction on the use of walking canes to help the workers navigate their way through their daily lives. The goods produced were sold on the local market. In 2000, the Jerusalem Workshop merged with another workshop for the blind in Jerusalem, and LWF-Jerusalem stepped into a supportive role for the resulting workshop.
Today, only the Bethlehem workshop remains as an LWF-Jerusalem project, Although LWF-Jerusalem still provides a safety net of support for the other workshops. This workshop functions semi-autonomously with the support of LWF-Jerusalem. LWF-Jerusalem assists the workshop by paying rent for the facility, supplying the materials required for the manufacture of brushes and brooms, and taking care of health insurance for the workers. The workers themselves manage the workshop, and their salaries come from the sales of their handiwork. In this way, the employees of the workshop are able to support themselves and their families with dignity.
See page 15 of the 2008 LWF-Jerusalem Annual Report for more »