Shirin Fund at Makassed Hospital

Shirin fund baby prior to surgery

Makassed Charitable Hospital was established in 1968 in Jerusalem, through local community efforts to improve the health conditions of Palestinians from all over the West Bank and Gaza. Makassed Hospital ensures that Palestinian patients, especially those with low incomes - who constitute the majority of the population, are able to access high quality and affordable hospital care. The Hospital is the major referral hospital for children in Palestine.

A fund was established in 2007 by WA with support from a private donor in the UK, in memory of her daughter, Shirin, to assist Palestinian children with special needs who require medical or surgical procedures but whose families are not able to afford the costs of hospitalisation. The children receive treatment at Makassed Charitable Hospital and the funds are intended to cover otherwise unaffordable expenses of specialised hospital care. Support has been provided for children with nutritional problems, diabetes, cardiac, orthopaedic, and respiratory problems.

The early care and treatment of children born with disabilities or acquiring disabilities through injury in the first years of childhood is crucial in order to maximise healthy growth and the aim of the surgeries is to improve the quality of the child’s life and maximise their skills and capabilities.

We fund this project when sufficient funds are available – the latest round was completed in 2017.

In 2017, the Shirin Fund supported the treatment costs of eleven children, including four children with open heart surgeries, two children who underwent neurosurgery, one child’s orthopaedic surgery and four additional critical paediatric surgeries. 90% of the children’s parents were unable to find work and were struggling to support their families. Without this support, many of these children would struggle with a disability and/or chronic illness with potentially life-threatening health consequences.

Our WA colleagues and Makassed Hospital staff in Jerusalem kindly donate their time to manage this special project, so ALL funds received will go directly to support poor children in need of treatment.

Art with a Cause: Sandra Fadayel’s support for the Shirin Fund

Welfare Association is delighted to announce that we are collaborating with Jordanian-Canadian artist, Sandra Fadayel, who has very generously offered to donate 30% of the sales of her artwork to the Shirin Fund.

Sandra has Palestinian roots and has trained at Bath University (UK), and the Pratt Institute in New York. She has worked internationally for some of the leading names in the design world in New York City, Toronto, Bristol, Florence, Amman, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai.

Sandra’s work explores two main themes:

  • Places: inspired by her travels around the world;
  • Heritage, a contemporary exploration (a.k.a "heritage-with-a-twist") of objects from another time, frequently featuring Arabian themes and motifs, such as Palestinian tribal jewellery, embroidery, woven Bedouin Jordanian rugs, and Arabic text.

To find out more about Sandra herself, click here.

To browse her artwork click here.

Aalej by Sandra Fadayel resized.jpg

As Sandra herself explains, “this artwork features the word “aalej” – meaning “heal” in Arabic, and comes from my collection Heritage III. The collection explores the world of tribal Palestinian jewellery, where amulets were worn for protection, and frequently feature words from prayers or names of angels and prophets. This piece plays with this concept, putting a contemporary spin on it, by using the word HEAL – a reminder to heal one's self in the quest for continuous growth and evolution.

 Heritage Series III is a peaceful homage to the beauty and richness of the culture and its people, which is all too often associated only with struggle and conflict. The references to Bedouin Jordanian weavings is a metaphorical concept, alluding to the interweaving of the Jordanian and Palestinian cultures.”

Remember, that by buying one of Sandra’s works you will also be supporting WA’s Shirin Fund, and its vital work to assist Palestinian children with special needs requiring medical or surgical procedures.

Please give generously to help support the Shirin Fund by completing the online form to the right, and/or buying one of Sandra Fadayel’s artworks. 

Shirin Fund Hospital ward pic 2 resized.jpg

See Also

Shirin Fund: Supporting Children with Special Needs

Providing crucial medical care to children in Palestine

Read more > Shirin Fund: Supporting Children with Special Needs

The Shirin Fund is supporting the costs of medical treatment for children with special needs in Palestine

Artist Sandra Fadayel is generously allocating 30% of her art sales to the Shirin Fund

Types of payment accepted



If you are a UK taxpayer, the value of your gift can be increased by 25% under the Gift Aid scheme at no extra cost to you.