Displaced Iraqi family shares with Baccalaureate School students their suffering

Abouna.org, Thu, 11/13/2014 - 13:00 - The Amman Baccalaureate School hosted on Wednesday, November 12, "Abu Mina" family, which is one of the Iraqi families that were forced to flee the Iraqi city of Mosul in two phases. This family is currently living at the Latin church hall in Naour township, which is one of the accommodation centers allocated by the Catholic Church in Jordan for displaced Iraqis.


Director of the Baccalaureate School intermediate stage Basma Nimri Marji said that the school holds this meeting out of moral responsibility to get familiarized with the suffering of people and to try to mitigate their pains. She said: “We thank the Almighty for His blessings and for the stability our beloved Jordan enjoys under the Hashemite leadership.”

Fr. Rif’at Bader, director of the Catholic Center for Studies and Media, and Naour parish priest, presented "Abu Mina" family and called for the need to build bridges with others and "break down the moral barriers that separate us from loving others and supporting them during their suffering. In the end, we are the children of one Father. We share the dignity of humanity offered to us by the Almighty God.” He thanked the school administration for this humanitarian gesture calling for holding similar meetings in other schools, so that students might be brought up sympathizing with the suffering of others.

A documentary film, produced by abouna.org site, was later screened. The film relates the human suffering in the city of Mosul and Nineveh Plain towns since last June up to this day. It also includes quotes of His Majesty King Abdullah II at the United Nations on the need to preserve the Christian Arab identity, quotes by Prince El Hassan Bin Talal during his visit to the accommodation centers, as well as quotes by Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal and the director of Caritas Jordan.
Caritas Jordan officials Farah Naffa’ and Carole Antonios presented a briefing on the aid provided by Caritas to about 5,000 people of displaced Iraqis.

Then, the family of "Abu Mina", which consists of his wife and three daughters, related the suffering they went through since the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 until their two-stage forced displacement at the hands of the so-called ISIS in 2014 first from Mosul to Qaraqosh township and later to the Kurdistan region. Later, Fuheis parish priest Fr. Imad Alamat expressed support and encouragement for the displaced. This was followed by the Iraqi family members talking about their suffering. Their youngest daughter Dina could not fight back tears that were welling her eyes and streaming down her cheeks, for as she was looking at school students of her age she said: “I would love to do back to school like you as I am still young have great ambitions.”

This meeting comes on the heels of a solidarity visit undertaken by a group of the Amman Baccalaureate School last week to the displaced Iraqis residing at the hall of the Latin Patriarch in Naour.

Source: http://en.abouna.org/en/holylands/displaced-iraqi-family-shares-baccalaureate-school-students-their-suffering