News
The Christians:
IS attacked at four in the morning. In the small village of Tel Hermes, only men stayed behind to try to defend it. The elderly had also stayed behind. Now IS dragged everyone out in their pyjamas. Of around 30 men, half were killed. One of them was electrician Fouad Younan.
The rest of the family had departed for Homs 20 days before. For eight months the family had no news about their father. Now, the Assyrian Christian family lives in an apartment in Beirut. All they have to remind them of their father is a photograph.
Before the war, life felt secure and good in the countryside. There were no problems about being Assyrian Christian, says mother Lina. Daughters Olivia, Eva and Vivian remember the good times with their father. That they went swimming in the river. They remember the green, beautiful village where everyone knew each other.
Olivia misses her friends from the Conservatory of Music where she studied.
“They were my happiest days”, she says. “Students came from all over Syria, now they’re all scattered”.
The family, which now consists only of women, is worried about the future. They have no problems in their neighborhood in Beirut. They attend Church services every Sunday. The two oldest sisters work now and again in a minimarket. But their future is in Australia, where many from the Assyrian community have travelled. An uncle and cousin already live in Melbourne.
The family hopes that sometime in the future they will be able to go to the village where Fouad is buried. They weren’t able to go to their father’s and Lina’s husband’s funeral. They just have pictures that people sent them.
On 28 November 2016, the World Council of Churches and Norwegian Church Aid are releasing a joint study, “Protection needs of minorities from Syria and Iraq,” in Oslo, Norway.
