The Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem, Palestine

Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem, located just 1,500 steps from the birthplace of Christ, is a state-of-the-art maternity and neonatal critical care center serving poor and at-risk women, infants, and children throughout the region.

In this area of conflict, the Hospital stands as a beacon of hope for families in the Bethlehem region, including refugee camps and remote desert villages. The Hospital and its Outreach Clinics have impacted more than one million lives since 1990. No one is ever turned away.

Since 1990 more than 100,000 babies have been born in the hospital. The Holy Family Hospital delivers approximately 70 percent of all Bethlehem infants, maintaining a survival rate of nearly 100 percent. It is the only hospital in the region medically equipped to deliver babies born before 32 weeks. Doctors and midwives fight to save every mother and baby, demonstrating a commitment to life that is absolute. Holy Family Hospital is often asked to accept the Bethlehem region’s most challenging medical cases. As a result, approximately 9% of all newborns delivered at the Hospital require neonatal intensive care.

American and European specialists have confirmed that the hospital operates according to an excellent western European standard. Because of the continuing unstable political and the very tight economic situation, the need for the hospital services has increased.

The Holy Family Hospital works closely with other medical facilities throughout the region, governmental, non-governmental and private hospitals, to optimize synergies and provide accessible medical care, continuing education and clinical training.

Palestine has a limited national health system and not all patients can afford to pay the full cost of hospitalization, so a team of social workers assesses the individual situation of patients in need and defines the appropriate support.

In order to provide efficient essential and specialized services, the running costs of the hospital are heavily subsidized by the Order of Malta, other governmental or non-governmental organizations as well as by private donors.

The Hospital’s compound is the home of the Daughters of Charity of Saint-Vincent de Paul who also operate the Holy Family Children’s home / Crèche of Bethlehem, the solely transition home for young orphans and abandoned babies in the Palestinian territories. The Crèche provides a safe and loving environment for the babies and toddlers whilst they await adoption, placement with a foster family or reunification with their biological families. The cooperation between the Daughters of Charity of Saint-Vincent de Paul and the Holy Family Hospital is strong and enhance the commitment of both institutions to alleviate suffering and bring well-being to the region.

Holy Family Hospital is a beloved institution, known as an oasis of peace to the greater Bethlehem community. Here, Christians and Muslims work together every day to serve families in need without regard to religion, ethnicity, or ability to pay.

As the second largest employer in Bethlehem, the Hospital also plays a crucial stabilizing role in the community, providing jobs to over 190 Palestinian families and creating employment opportunities for women in an area where few exist.