Majida’s Story: Finding Shelter in the Storm
Others, RefugeesContributed by: Canadian Baptist Ministries
“The fighting started with heavy explosions, and then the planes came and were dropping bombs, and then they were bombing every day,” shares Majida*, now living as a refugee in Lebanon. Together with her husband and five children, Majida fled Syria nearly three years ago when bombings and explosions moved from the centre of the city and starting hitting the suburbs. One of the bombs destroyed the electric plant where her husband worked. They were without power and he was out of a job.
When she and her family arrived in Lebanon, they found shelter in a community centre housing multiple refugee families. She desperately wanted her children to have an education, but was unable to afford enrolling them in any of the local schools. She worried as she saw them sitting at home all day, bored. She tried to teach them a bit herself, but it wasn’t the same. “I was very tired emotionally for the first four or five months here in Lebanon. You understand me,” she shared with a wistful smile.
The family has since lived in three different shelters, the latest move in order to be closer to the children’s new education centre started by a local Baptist church in the Bekaa region. They now live in a two-bedroom apartment that they share with another family. It’s crowded, but this allows them to split the $500 rent. Her husband was able to find some work at a restaurant, and with his current salary they are barely scraping by.
When the educational centre first opened its doors in 2013, three of her children were able to enroll. When Grades 6 and 7 were added, her daughter was also able to attend. Majida too is studying English as part of the adult education program at the centre.
“I’m studying English for my children,” she says with a smile, “so that I can help them.” She and her children are happy to have this opportunity to be out of the home and interacting with others. “Before my children spoke a lot about Syria and the war, but now they speak about Jesus and peace.”
* name has been changed
Footnote: CBM is walking alongside our partner, the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development, as it responds to the approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees who have f led into Lebanon since the start of the civil war in 2011. It’s helping local churches to respond to the great need in their midst.
From a report by the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development.