Eleven million people have fled from their homes due to the war in Syria. 400,000 Syrians have been killed. Most recently reports have come out of Syria that women of Aleppo were killing themselves so they did not have to get raped. According to Catholic Relief Services, half of the 11 million refugees are children. These children have seen things and experienced things that not many young children should experience. Many have been riveted by the daily tweets of a seven-year-old girl, Bana Alabed and her mother. They have been live tweeting about their life in Syria. They post videos and pictures of the city of Aleppo.
Catholic Relief Services is a worldwide non-profit organization that provides aid to those in need. CRS was started 70 years ago to help war refugees suffering from World War II. CRS and their aid have expanded since then. They helps those who have suffered from natural disasters and poverty as well as being one of the world’s leading development agencies. This calendar year CRS is focusing on educating Americans on three topics: climate change, Syrian refugees and human trafficking.
Cabrini has had its own chapter of CRS Ambassadors since 2008, the second oldest in the nation. CRS ambassadors are students who help bring awareness to the lives of the world’s most vulnerable. Cabrini and CRS have had a partnership together for almost 12 years.
This past fall the CRS ambassadors at Cabrini have studied the Syrian Refugee Crisis. “After learning about Syrian Refugees and their struggles in my one class, CRS is the perfect place for me to further my knowledge,” Michelle Guerin, freshman ambassador, said. This year Cabrini held a vigil in honor of the Syrian Refugees fleeing their country.
The students at the vigil studied the refugee crisis for about six weeks. They studied different aspects of the crisis. The ambassadors studied how the war started, who is involved, why the refugees are leaving, what happens to them as they leave, the journey, what happens after the journey and how they are surviving.
At the vigil students read a poem called “Home,” written by Warsan Shire. The poem is about the process of becoming a refugee and what it is like to be a refugee. “I first heard the poem at Villanova and it brought tears to my eyes. It really hit me because I have been studying Syrian refugees for three years now and these words finally described what I have been learning,” Marissa Roberto, junior social media manager of CRS Ambassadors, said.
Once the poem was over the ambassadors formed into a circle around the peace pool in the commons and spoke about what the poem meant to them. When thinking about that, the president of the CRS ambassadors asked them to think of what they learned throughout the semester so far about refugees and apply it to what the poem said.
“Being able to reflect on what is happening with other people that understand the same knowledge as I do, I thought was really important especially because what is going on now in Syria, i think it was important to to take time out of our day and reflect on their lives,” Danielle Basile, a freshman ambassador said.
Once the everyone was done sharing their thoughts, candles were lit. Every ambassador was holding onto a candle and then the president lit her candle and then turned to her right and lit the candle of the person next to her. The process continued until every candle was lit. “Having each of us light each other’s candle was signifying to all of us that we all are here together to pray for the Syrian refugee children,” Guerin said.
Once the vigil was over the ambassadors felt comfortable enough to continue the conversation about refugees. Guerin said,”I think the vigil was the thing that brought me to being comfortable with everyone because being able to find something in common is easy but something that you are passionate about and also in common with was really eye opening that other people care as much as I do on topics that are really hard to get across to some people.”
