Half Marathon for Franciscan Boys Home, Bethlehem

My father Michael Senior and myself will compete in the Omagh Half Marathon on Sunday March 26 to raise funds for the Franciscan Boys Home in Bethlehem in the Holy Land. The Bethlehem Boys Home is one of many social services aimed at helping the struggling Palestinian community in the city where Jesus was born.

The home, founded in 2007, sought to open a new window of hope and a lifeline to a bright future for vulnerable boys who had nowhere else to go and were extremely at risk.

This home was built to house boys between the ages of 6 and 18 - children who were driven into a world of pain and suffering for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include being orphaned, abandoned, neglected through drug abuse within their family, physical and emotional abuse and other socioeconomic problems that the Palestinian community faces.