Fear, Solidarity, Commitment

Fear, Solidarity, Commitment

The earthquake as lived by young people in Aleppo

(ANS – Aleppo – February 14, 2023) – The humanity surviving and taking refuge in the Salesian house in Aleppo, still in shock, is a microcosm of the earthquake zone of northern Syria.

“We’ve lived through more than 10 years of war, but perhaps these moments are the most terrible because of the terror we’ve experienced.... We can’t describe what we’ve gone thru,” says Joelle Klzi, animator of the Salesian youth center.

Yet these are also people with great resilience, who manage to find even in this situation the ability to thank those who have done so much for them, such as Don Bosco’s sons. “We were in bed when it happened, and within seconds we were down on the street,” shares young Judy Elia, a young dentist. “We didn’t take anything with us. Our only concern was getting away, far from home. We looked for an open place, away from the buildings, in a very difficult situation, because it was also raining.... And since the day of the earthquake, we’ve been here. The Salesians have opened their doors; we haven’t lacked anything. They’ve given us blankets, mattresses, three meals a day. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts because in addition to material support, there has been moral support.”

Since Feb. 6, and continuing in the following days, the communication delegation of the Salesian Middle East Province has collected several testimonies from the young survivors welcomed to the Don Bosco center in Aleppo. From their words emerge both the fear of the very first moments, but also the solidarity experienced and the sense of relief of being together under the Salesian embrace.

For example, little Micho narrates: “It was a terrible earthquake: we woke up gripped with fear and waited for the tremors to end because the walls were falling. We went down; there was a lot of rain, and we slept outside the house. But now I’m not afraid, because I’m at Don Bosco playing with my friends.”

“What we experienced was too much! We went down the street barefoot, we were running, we were in the rain, we didn’t have adequate clothing.... We stayed like that from 4:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. We were so afraid,” Nadia Ebed, a housewife, still recalls with anguish. Relief, however, came from Don Bosco Aleppo, where, the woman concludes, “we were welcomed along with a lot of people.”

On the efforts of the Salesians and their collaborators, Stephanie Sultanem, a medical student, these days working at the Salesian youth center, spoke. “After the earthquake, we set up a medicine collection point for the large number of people who are among us. It’s to serve people because so many people have run away from home without being able to get medicine and can no longer return because of the insecurity of the facilities.”

The trials that thousands of people in Syria today are facing are indeed extreme: “I don’t know to what extent people can look to the future with hope, especially after long years of war,” reports Joelle Klzi at the end of her talk.

But she concludes, “I only know that the Lord has saved us from certain death.”

These and other testimonies are available in the special playlist on “ANSChannel.”