Support association

Who we are

All you need to know about our association – from its origins up to our current orientation

Tor zum Leben (Gateway to Life) – Lifegate Rehabilitation e.V.

The name says it all

Lifegate wants to open doors of life for people with disabilities! In accordance with our Christian-diaconal orientation, we are convinced that every person deserves the chance to be supported and to take their personal and medical development into their own hands.

That is why we actively and sustainably support the work in Beit Jala in the Palestinian territories. And because we believe that all this works best when people’s origin, religion and political attitude are not decisive, we build bridges across borders.

Tor zum Leben e.V. supports the work of Lifegate in Beit Jala and enables encounters between Palestinian and Israeli people as well as between Jews, Christians and Muslims. We want to make a sustainable contribution to a long-term and peaceful coexistence between the two peoples living in the same country.

[dwci_divi_mask dwic_image=„https://www.lifegate-reha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Foerderverein-1-scaled.jpg” dwic_clipping_shapes=„custom” dwic_svg=„https://www.lifegate-reha.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/blob-06.svg” dwic_scale=„1.25” module_class=„bg-gate bg-gate‑s bg-gate-left‑s bg-gate-blue‑s” _builder_version=„4.7.3” custom_margin=„30px||||false|false” animation_style=„zoom” animation_intensity_zoom=„20%” custom_css_before=„width:155px;||left:0px;||top:0;||height:185px” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_css_before_last_edited=„on|desktop” custom_css_before_phone=„width:125px;||left:0px;||top:0;||height:150px” custom_css_before_tablet=„width:180px;||left:0px;||top:0;||height:215px;”][/dwci_divi_mask]

Year of foundation

Members

Our history

In the late 1980s Burghard Schunkert founded Lifegate Rehabilitation as an institution for children and young people with physical disabilities in the Palestinian territories. He and his team of volunteers from Germany and the Palestinian territories developed a holistic concept:

Lifegate wants to open doors to life and show perspectives that enable people with disabilities to live more independently.

Volunteers and young people with disabilities lived together in residential groups, and medical work developed. Education was a priority in Lifegate’s training workshop. The aim of the work was to enable the young people to live independently in their home environment.

While Lifegate was strongly influenced by volunteers and conscripts on community service from Germany in the first years, more local specialists were trained step by step and deployed on a long-term basis.

As a result the work of Lifegate grew and became more professional. By moving into the new Lifegate house in Beit Jala in summer 2012, Lifegate has become one of the most modern facilities for the promotion of people with disabilities in the Palestinian territories.

In 2018, Lifegate took over a guest house in Bethlehem and opened „Lifegate Garden”, an integrative house where people with and without disabilities are welcome and work together.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the question of financing and support for the team on site arose. After their return, volunteers founded the association in Würzburg in April 1993.

Tor zum Leben (Gateway to Life) – Lifegate Rehabilitation e.V.

Today the association has around 250 active and sponsoring members, who support Lifegate through practical work or donations.