BRISBANE’S Melkite Catholic Church community has expressed despair at the latest violence in Syria, and has vowed to dig deep to help war refugee families arriving in Brisbane.
St Clement’s Melkite Church, South Brisbane parish priest Fr Elie Francis said the impact of the of the latest air strike on a hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo had touched each and every one of his parishioners.
“It is very sad to see the images of children affected,” he said.
“Everyone in my parish has families in Syria, Iraqi or Lebanon. It is very personal.
“They fear that one day they will see images of their own relatives in a similar attack.
“We pray. Just like people around the world, we pray that this war will end and there can be peace.”
Fr Francis said his parish community would be doing all it could to assist Syrian and Iraqi refugee families arriving in Brisbane.
His parishioners fully support the Queensland Government pledge to accept 3500 refugees as part of an Australian intake of 12,000.
“I have names and contacts for the first five families. I will visit them and see what we can do to reach out and help,” Fr Francis said.
“It could be clothes, food, space in houses, money. We will do everything we can.”
May Jabbour and husband Edmund are among the Syrians in the St Clement’s parish prepared to offer immediate help.
Mrs Jabbour, who left Syria just before the reign of violence that began in 2011, speaks Arabic, French and English and said she was willing to work as a translator.
“The refugees will need moral support, and I have time to give. I am not working at the moment,” she said.
“It will be very important to understand the trauma they have been through, especially the children,” she said.
“They will be hurting.
“Most of the children have grown hearing the bombing and seeing the slaying. “They will need the help of the whole community – from people who understand the trauma they have seen.”
Mrs Jabbour has sisters who remain in Damascus, and she would dearly love to bring them and their families to Brisbane.
“I ring them constantly – not to see if they are safe, but to ask if they have been hurt,” she said.
“Two days ago they celebrated Easter Sunday in Damascus. There were no children present to celebrate. All the young people have left the country.
“It is a generation gone. It is so sad. How will we ever rebuild the country?”
Relatives of Mrs Jabbour’s husband, Edmund, remain in Aleppo, which has seen the worst of the bombing in recent weeks.
“It is devastating for us. A friend, a Muslim who is there, told my husband that at least 700 families have left the Aleppo Christian areas,” he said.
“The shelling is cleansing the Christians from the city. It is very hard to take.”
By Mark Bowling
