São Paulo – Last Friday (8th), the Syrian minister of Expatriates, Joseph Sweed, got to know the work that the Arab colony in Brazil develops in order to provide better living conditions to children who are victims of social problems in the country. He visited the Pro-Infancy Syrian Home, a non-profit organisation headquartered in the city of São Paulo that helps more than 3,000 children each year, and was impressed by the work. “It reflects the noble spirit that lies in the heart of Syrians,” Sweed told ANBA regarding the colony’s initiative.
Last year, the Pro-Infancy Syrian Home benefited 3,197 children by working in several different fields. One of the main initiatives is the provision of shelter to children in risk situations. The focus is on children and adolescents who have cases of alcohol addition, drug consumption and violence in their families – or whose parents are either imprisoned or living in the streets –, and who live at the Syrian Home. There are 60 children and adolescents living in the four existing homes. There, each group of children lives with social mothers. The idea is for the homes to reproduce an actual household. Whenever there are brothers and sisters involved, they always live together.
The homes also provide care to children in vulnerable conditions or at social risk. In these cases, prevention work is developed. The children stay in the Syrian Home during the day, are sent to school and perform a series of activities, and then return to their houses in the late afternoon. They are divided in two groups, one of up to 11 years of age, and the other, from 11 to 18. There is also the Municipal School (Emei) of the Syrian Home, in which the organisation works in partnership with the São Paulo City Hall, and professional courses are offered to youths.
Minister Sweed had the opportunity to become acquainted with the entire structure, speak to the directors of the organisation, and to the children. He also watched a dance presentation by adolescents at the Home, who wore T-shirts bearing the Brazilian and Syrian flags. The Syrian leader praised the work. He was welcomed by the president of the organisation, Jamil Zaki Namour, the president of the Board of Consultants, Salim Taufic Schahin, who is also the president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, the superintendent, Cleide Robertson Paiva, and the director, João Farah.
According to Schahin, upon visiting this type of initiative, Arab authorities are able to see what immigrants and their descendents are doing for Brazil. “The Syrian community has developed many different lines of work in São Paulo. This one touches our heart the most because it helps children with social problems,” said Schahin. He asked the minister to invite the president of his country, Bashar al-Assad, and his wife to visit Brazil and get to know the organisation. Schahin’s father, Taufic Schahin, was one of the organisation’s first collaborators.
The minister went to the Syrian Home alongside the Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop, Dom Damaskinos Mansour, and the consul general of Syria in São Paulo, Ghazi Deeb. They were welcomed with a cocktail of Brazilian fruit, so as to introduce them to the diversity of national production. During the visit, Dom Damaskinos played with the children by making them repeat which is the capital of the world: “Homs,” he said. Homs is the city of origin of many Syrian descendents living in Brazil, among them the founders of the Home.
The Syrian Home was founded 85 years ago and is maintained by donations. Part of the funds comes from rental of buildings owned by the Home itself. It was first conceived as an orphanage, and evolved as the country progressed in the field of infancy, since 1923. As the superintendent of the Home underscores, the organisation works to support the child as a whole, rather than in their physical (or food) needs alone. “Our psychosocial project has a holistic view of the children,” says Cleide about the work, which aims to cater to the children’s physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual needs.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
