Rome – Just before Ramadan quickly breaks on Sunday, Hasan Zaheda played basketball with his son in the small yard of the apartment at the basement on Rome, where the refugee family restores their lives.
They don’t have pictures from their home Syria – they fled from Damascus at the amount of civil war with just one change of clothes, diapers and milk for their little ones. But there is a framed photo of the small Riad Meeting of Pope Francis, who brought them and two more Muslim families with him to Italy from Refugee camps on the Greek island of Lesbos Almost ten years ago.
“He’s a gift from Paradise,” he said Zaheda on Sunday, Chuckling. “Pope Francis, a gift of our God, that God sent us to save us.”
As Zahedas began to observe Holy Month RamadanFrancis, 88, entered his third week The struggle of pluneumonia in the hospital Not far from. The least I can do, the family said he would be close to him at the prayer night and day.
“We are looking for his health bulletin every day,” said the mother, Nour Essa, 39, after recalling the meeting from the Pontifa in Lesbos. “What the most shocked that the father of the church was a modest man, who did not have prejudices, open to other nationalities and religion.”
Family traveled to the plane pope – one of the most visible moments Advocacy for migrants marked by Francis Pontism. Zahedas remembers how friendly Francis patted Riad’s head as he crossed into the passage to talk to reporters.
But “wonderful” as they appeared, it was just the beginning of a new life in Italy to which they still adapt.
ESSA, biologist and zaheda, architect who worked as a civil servant in Damascus, decided to leave Syria in 2015. years after he was drafted in the army. They sold their house to pay for smugglers, walking through the night trying not to make sound in the desert and at one point rides ten hours in different trucks.
After the abolition to move through the territory that controlled by ISIS, they were used in Turkey, and then had three failed attempts to reach Greek islands by boat before arriving in Lesbos in early 2016. years.
. On the walls of Hasan’s persecuted image of a white face against whirling black and red tell all-visible parent memories.
After more than one month at the Lesbos camp, the family approached the interview of the stranger – Daniel Pompei, the head of migration and integration for the Catholic charity Sant’egidio.
She earned her to find families with an appropriate paperwork that Francis could return Rome with him and asked them to make a decision. They accepted, and beneficence, with vatican funds, eventually brought more than 300 refugees from Greece and 150 from another Pap Travel at Cyprus in 2021. years.
The goal of Sant’Egidio was to spare migrants longer travel towards the sea over different routes in the Mediterranean, who have tens of thousands of asylum killed Willing to “die for hope” over the years, Pompei said.
But the real test is integration, from processing their cases asylum to learn Italian to school and work for work. Initiatives like the Pope make up all the difference because they signal the refugees that their new communities are ready to welcome them, despite faith.
“Papa has long complained the opening of the parish, to greet at least one family in every parish, to encourage Catholics to oppose what he called, with a very strong concept in Lampedusi, “Globalization of indifference”, “ Pompei said.
In the characteristic Roman emphasis, they have gained parents of Zaheda in their challenges – they must be reeroll at universities, so they can be recognized by their families to come to Europe, take care of their son.
Working or studying 12 hours a day, they rarely have time to socialize with other Syrian families and migrants that contain most of their neighbors in modest apartment buildings, as well as most flat classmates.
His best friend is from Ecuador, and Riad plans to study Spanish in high school. He joined the local basketball team, and the paintings from the court of his bedroom, where a large Syrian flag hangs on his bed. He likes to read a small prince in English, but his Arabic is tentative, although he spends most afternoon with Grandpa, who likes to sketch domestic churches.
For Sunday IFTAR – a meal piercing the day quickly – the family is covered with a small table with yogurt and sland in pizza and pulled pizza in typical roman tastes like flower for zucchini.
As Riad packed a school week, their parents said the future hinges on a small boy – who would probably remain in Italy, instead of joining cousins in France or return to Syria they probably couldn’t recognize.
“I always want to build your future that can build a position as a son of an undocumented migrant arrived in Italy and who wanted to leave his mark in the new country,” said Zaheda.
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2025-03-04 06:08:00
