40 years ago, in 1985, our founder Val Jourdan spent a year working in Bethlehem as a paediatric physiotherapist and saw firsthand the almost complete lack of any rehabilitation for children with physical, mental, and learning disabilities, leaving them and their families with little or no access to rehabilitation support.

Rehabilitation centres in the refugee camps face many challenges, including a lack of funding to provide holistic rehabilitation and accessibility issues that prevent disabled children from being fully integrated into the local community, and professional staff require further training in rehabilitation services that they may not have had access to before.

Before ABCD began supporting refugee camps in the West Bank, disability was widely seen as a stigma. As a result, many families were reluctant or unable to seek support for their children with disabilities, leaving them undiagnosed and the issue unrecognised in the community.

The birth of ABCD

One year after her placement, in 1986, Val teamed up with Georgina Mortimer to start ABCD Bethlehem, also known as Action around Bethlehem Children with Disabilities, a UK-registered charity.

ABCD has one simple mission: to improve the quality of life of disabled children in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank by providing holistic rehabilitation pathways and tackling discrimination.

Over the following decades, we expanded our support by drawing on the rehabilitation expertise of the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation (BASR) Hospital in Bethlehem and by supporting families of children with disabilities. We also continued to supply rehabilitation equipment, such as wheelchairs and hearing aids, while establishing our vital Outreach Programmes

A timeline of support

Over the past 12 years, we have extended support to some of the most deprived and vulnerable communities in Palestine – the refugee camps in the West Bank, where we work in tandem with our resolute partners at seven centres. 

• In 2014, in Jalazone (near Ramallah), one of the most overcrowded camps in the West Bank, we refurbished the rehabilitation space and funded occupational therapy, physiotherapy and social activities.
• In 2015, in Nur Shams (Tulkarem), we successfully equipped the centre with important resources while supporting therapy services. Due to the political situation that left the Nur Shams refugee camp a military closed area and the destruction of homes and infrastructure, the centre was forced to close. The centre committee has since secured a temporary space to rent in a neighbouring village. 
• In 2017, in Al Arroub (north of Hebron), we helped to refurbish and equip an existing centre that now supports around 250 children each month.
• In 2019, in Beit al Maa (near Nablus), the very first refugee camp created by the UN in 1948, we provided support and helped build it to a thriving centre providing physio, speech and language and therapeutic support to over 200 children
  
• In 2021, in Deir Ammar (north-west Ramallah), we began supporting the isolated community by transforming two bare rooms into a successful community rehabilitation centre, including a new garden space for learning and play.
• In 2025, in Al Am’ari (south of Ramallah), we worked with the local disability committee and UNRWA to open a new centre providing vital support for children with complex physical and learning disabilities.
• As of 2026, in Gaza, we have ringfenced funding to support children with disabilities once we have secured an appropriate partner.
• Alongside this, we continue our long-standing support for the Sheepfold Centre in Beit Sahour, providing daycare, therapy, and specialist equipment for some of the most vulnerable children and young adults in Bethlehem.

Our work today

Today, despite an immensely challenging environment, ABCD continues to support well-run, well-resourced and sustainable rehabilitation centres, made more so by providing training to our dedicated local staff right across Palestine. We are developing project plans and renovating spaces, purchasing equipment and building relationships with other local health providers.

With tens of thousands of children helped over 40 years, we know that we have made and will continue to make the lives of the children who visit us so much better, giving them and their families a brighter future.

We also offer online support (through WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams), working alongside our invaluable centres and the Outreach Programme to reach even more children in need.

“Our working partners and therapeutic staff are outstanding in making sure that every child in their care comes first,” Firas Sarhan, ABCD Project Manager

Plans for the future

Sadly, demand for our support continues to grow, as we respond and adapt to the consequences of growing conflict in the region. This includes an increasing need to provide emergency funding for trauma therapy, delivery of food parcels, and essential medication and nappies for families who have lost their livelihoods.

The Palestinians are an incredibly resourceful people who have suffered all kinds of injustices in their 75 years of occupation and generations of frustrated hopes for justice. They – and ABCD – have had to learn the art of Sumud, or steadfast perseverance, a refusal to give up hope. We must not lose this. Rev. Daniel Burton, ABCD chair

Our long-term aim is to help centres become self-sufficient while ensuring that every Palestinian child with disabilities has access to quality rehabilitation, reducing medical complications and supporting their long-term development.

We also plan to build an audiology centre in Al Am’ari refugee camp, which is part of our Hope through Hearing campaign.

Please consider donating now to this important cause.

Image gallery

< Go back to main page