MAHER Center was established in mid-2003 by Yahia Abu Sharif after his son, Maher, suffered from cancer for one year and died at the early age of 12. During Maher’s illness, the Abu Sharif family sadly discovered that there were no emotional or academic support services for their child, nor did anyone help the family deal with how Maher’s illness was affecting them. Yahia Abu Sharif established MAHER CENTER to fill that need. MAHER CENTER started to work, without any funding, thanks to the unconditional and enthusiastic hard work of a group of young Palestinian volunteers from the Jerusalem and Bethlehem areas. We began to work with the Al-Hussein Public Hospital in Beit Jala near Bethlehem because it is one of only two hospitals in West Bank that specializes in children’s oncology. The Al-Hussein Hospital serves one and a half million people living between the central and Southern areas of the West Bank (part of the Jordan Valley, Jericho, and Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron governorates). MAHER Center also enlisted the support of the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in West Jerusalem, where Maher was treated. Since 2003, we have offered services to children at these two hospitals as well as the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem.
In 2009 MAHER Center had to close its headquarter in Bethlehem. However, a team from the center worked together to restablish MAHER Center in Jerusalem.
History
