Dr. Victor Batarseh Mayor of Bethlehem, Consul Maria Velasco Head of Political section at the Swedish Consulate, Mr. Matt Davis country representative CRS, Mr. Sami Marwa director of the Bethlehem Education Directorate, owner of the building, project contractor and number of organizations representative, attended the event.

Dr. Batarseh welcomed the attendees and praised the role of each of the Swedish government, the owners of the building and the CCHP for its efforts in reviving the heritage and preserving our cultural identity and contributes to job creation.

 In turn, Governor Hamayel expressed his delight to inaugurate this building, which carries a lot of memories and requested everyone to unite and continue efforts to preserve our cultural heritage which represents the authenticity and roots of the Palestinian people.

Arch. Issam Juha, director of CCHP pointed out that this project comes within the "Job Creation through Rehabilitation" programme which started in 2005, and helped up to now in rehabilitating more that 25 traditional building for adaptive reuse for the benefit of the community, and created around 55.000 working days.  Moreover, Arch. Juha thanked Bethlehem Municipality, Governorate, and Swedish government, owners of the building, project contractor and Arch Luma Qumsieh Khoury supervisor of the project for their efforts.

Mr. Velasco expressed the proud of the Swedish government in helping and contributing in preserving the Palestinian cultural heritage due to its importance to the Palestinian people.

Mr. Marwan Awad treasurer and Ms. Susan Sahouri executive director of the BFTA presented a simplified explanation about the institution, its services and future plans for economical development, and thanked all who contributed to the success of the project.  After the ceremony, the delegation toured in the building, where CCHP presented a presentation of photos showing the building before and after rehabilitation.

It's worth mentioning that Dar Al-Bandak was built in 1876, and consists of two floors with an area of 250 sq m.  Rehabilitation works started in November 2009 and created around 1,763 working days with a budget of 427,890 NIS.