MEET FIRAS

My name is Firas and I am from Aleppo, Syria. I have three children who attend the church’s education center: my daughters who are 14 and 10 years old, and my son who is 9. I also have an older daughter who is 16. She used to go to the center, but she now lives in Beirut with her grandmother.

I first came to Lebanon as a young man to work. I was twenty years old when I first came here, and I would come and go between here and Syria. It was long before the war. During this time, I got married and my wife and I had our two older daughters in Syria.

Right after the war started in Syria, things got scary really fast and my family told me to make them come to Lebanon so that they would be safe. They couldn’t come alone, so I had to go back to Syria from Lebanon to bring them back with me. I risked my life and it was a very dangerous trip. Our daughters were three and a year and a half at the time. I carried them and by the time we fled from Aleppo, the road was already badly damaged, and there were shelling and missiles flying around us from all sides.

I thank God we made it to Lebanon. Despites the challenges of living here as refugees, we owe our lives to Lebanon, the Lebanese people, and the Lebanese state. Here we found protection when all other countries abandoned us. This is what we will remember, God willing, and this is what I teach my children.

When we first came, we settled in the Beqaa valley. We rented a small home with my mother, my wife, and our daughters. I worked as hard as I could, day and night, as a chauffeur, or as a construction or agriculture laborer. I worked at anything to make ends meet and to provide for what my children and my family needed.

Since then, our two younger children were born, and our situation in Lebanon has remained very difficult. We have been here for 14 years now. We were greatly affected by the recent crises in Lebanon. The financial crisis hit us hard. Before, we used to earn more money and have higher purchasing power. Now, $100 a month is no longer enough to live well. I now work more and even harder than before, but what I get is still not enough. There are many things we cannot afford. The children often ask us for things we cannot provide for them, even some food sometimes. I have been very tired, and I have no one to help me.

In this difficult context, the education center helped my children a lot. My wife heard about it from someone in our community. They told us it was a great place, and that the children received a good education there, completely free. So, we first enrolled our older daughter. This was seven years ago already! Since then, all our children have been blessed to go there, and we know the manager and the teachers very well. They are all amazing, we have nothing but great things to say about them.

An added challenge my children and I have been going through is that in 2019, my wife abandoned us and moved back to Syria alone. This affected us all immensely. I felt completely lost and desperate and I just cried out to God for help. I struggled and raised them alone for five years, hoping she would come back. My mother lives with us and she has been helping a lot of course. But nothing replaces a mother. Even we adults need our mothers, what about children? I can’t do it on my own, I cannot be both the father and the mother. Our younger son is very upset with her, because he was only two years old when she left. His mother abandoned him, and he doesn’t even remember what she looks like. I waited a long time and refused to remarry in case she came back. But after a while, I was told that while I was still waiting for her, she had remarried and had new children.

The teachers were very helpful during this time and took extra care of the children, knowing about our situation. One teacher in particular was very good and loving and I will never forget how attached to her the children were. Every morning before the bus would pick them up, they would pick flowers to give to their favorite teacher.

I am deeply touched by everyone’s care at the center. I especially appreciate that they truly don’t discriminate or differentiate between people, no matter their religion or ethnicity. It is unique. I was even more inspired when the coordinator told me that her family personally suffered a lot from the Syrian army during the war in Lebanon. The Syrians came and destroyed her house; there was nothing left of it. Despite this, she didn’t respond to harm with harm. On the contrary, today she is serving Syrian refugee like my children and myself.

My main goal today is that my children continue to receive a good education, in the hope that they might learn as much as possible and be able to choose their own future. This is the most important!