To get there we go up a road that crosses small villages, many of which are inhabited almost entirely by Christians. On the street lamps we see posters with young faces. I ask if there are elections, imagining they are candidates in a mayoral race. The answer takes me back to the drama of the town we are visiting. They are civilian martyrs, that is, soldiers killed on the war's internal front, who lived in that village.
The house of Kafroun serves the Salesian works of Syria and Lebanon as a reference point for the school camps for children and young people, and for the formation days of the Salesians and the Salesian Family.
It is a Salesian presence that was established in 1992, but lasted only a little less than twenty years. In fact, in 2009, the Salesians closed the community and use the house only as a vacation home. At the break of the war, however, they opened it for two years to the many families of Aleppo displaced by the fighting. The singular thing is that in the few years since the stable presence of the Salesian community, there has been a group of Salesian Cooperators, dads and moms, who continue to carry on the educative style of Don Bosco.
On the weekends, they are the ones opening the home to the area's young and animating the oratory, as well as the Sunday Mass, attended by about 200 people, mostly children and young people.
One can see that the people here are more serene: the rebels have not arrived. Life proceeds at a slower pace, even if the consequences of war are also felt in these parts because of the photos of the civilian martyrs, the presence of displaced families, the checkpoints at every crossroad and the lack of a stable job which affect each of the families here.
Further information available on the "Don Bosco Missions" website.
