About us

Alice Sahhar and her daughter Samar, already running an orphanage for boys, began housing girls in an orphanage based in a flat, but it was soon clear that they needed a purpose-built orphanage for the girls they had taken in, and for the still many more homeless and destitute girls they had no room for.

The work of finding funds and land for a new girls' orphanage would take dedication and work and needed far more hands than Alice, Samar, and their local supporters could provide.

Fortunately, the orphanage has been blessed by a number of people around the work who have worked, and who continue to work, to fund it. A group of people in North East England, who had previously visited the home for girls run by Alice and Samar, formed the Friends of the Lazarus Home for Girls as a Christian-based charity. It was granted official UK charitable status in 1999.

This charity's project is to fund and build a purpose-built orphanage for girls. The project took its name from Lazarus, so closely linked to Bethany. Lazarus, brother to Mary and Martha, died here and was brought back to life by Our Savious Jesus Christ. His tomb still exists in the town. The charity does not take a penny from donations they receive for administration: members of the Friends pay for all their own expenses.

Currently, they both support the Lazarus Home for Girls as it is, a flat that houses about twenty girls, and continue work on the Lazarus Project, to house many more.