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ABOUT MEEI

"The children are so bright and alert, but their mothers are busy and don't have time … There are so many of them, and they just play in the streets and the fields until they go to … school. It would be so beneficial for them if they could attend a kindergarten daily. They could learn singing, drawing, games, Bible stories, numbers, letters …" (We Belong to the Land, Elias Chacour)

In the late 1960's, there were no kindergartens in Ibillin or the surrounding villages and certainly no suitable buildings. So, in 1968, Mariam Bawardi Kindergarten began in the only available room in the village — Abuna's bedroom and office. It became a kindergarten in the morning, a library in the afternoon, and storage room at night! Where did Abuna sleep? In his small yellow Volkswagen! Sister Nazarena and Sister Ghislaine from Nazareth gave many years of devoted service to the smallest but most important people in Ibillin. From the initial 20 children, the Kindergarten soon grew to fifty and then seventy. A simple two-room building was constructed near the Church, but this too was soon overflowing.

At last in 1978, the new three-storey kindergarten was built on the hillside below the church. It soon became a model for kindergartens all over the Galilee. When Sister Ghislaine died and Sister Nazarena retired in Jaffa in 1992, Abuna had to make a critical decision — to close the Kindergarten or keep it open and see what the Lord had in store. That year an abundance of children were enrolled — more than one hundred and eighty!

Today the Kindergarten is a lively, welcoming place where over 220 bright eyed 3 - 5 year olds are nurtured through the all important foundational years of early childhood education. Director, Ms Nawar Musallam, and her staff are dedicated to fostering the spiritual development as well as providing the best possible environment for physical and intellectual development of these preschoolers.