The Young Are Better Than What They Have Around Them

The Young Are Better Than What They Have Around Them

Salesian Commitment During Syrian War

(ANS – Aleppo – April 6) – In his Urbi et Orbi message on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis said: “We Christians believe and know that the resurrection of Christ is the true hope of the world.... Today we ask for the fruits of peace for the whole world, beginning with the beloved and beseiged Syria, whose population is exhausted by a war that sees no end.”

In that beloved and martyred land, among an exhausted people, the Salesians continue to be sowers of comfort and makers of peace.

In recent years, the Salesian youth center of Aleppo has continued to be a point of reference for the youngsters and families who frequent it. “At the beginning of the war, in 2012, we were forced to close it for six months. But when we realized that the conflict would last a long time, we decided to reopen. There was no other way: staying closed in their houses, the children would have gone crazy,” explains the center’s young director, himself from Aleppo, Fr. Pier Jabloyan.

Among the many activities maintained, the after-school program is aimed at about 70 children, organized by involving about a dozen university students.

“There are enormous educational needs,” Fr. Jabloyan continues. “Many schools have been destroyed or transformed into shelters.... Moreover, if one has no water in the house, no electricity, and has difficulty feeding himself, it is hard to tell anybody to study. But Don Bosco teaches us that education means the future. This is why we have resisted, offering our children what we had: our spaces, our snacks, the effort and commitment of our young people.”

The war has also caused numerous injuries in those who have survived the violence. Fr. Jabloyan said: “In everyone, the war has created psychological problems. The threshold of sensitivity has risen a lot: the news of one or two dead is in danger of not having any more effect. Often boys express themselves harshly and sometimes a soccer match can become a pretext for aggression to explode. Here, too, we try to accompany them and help them remember that they are better than what surrounds them, as many times they have shown us.”

The Facebook page “Don Bosco Aleppo” is a powerful witness of the many activities of the youth center and the Salesian commitment to offer a normality made up of moments of prayer, liturgical feasts, music, shows, etc.

“This is our style,” concludes Fr. Jabloyan, “to focus on beauty and on coming together, meeting.”