Mennonite Weekly Review

AMMAN, Jordan — Meeron Chamoun is only 8 years old, but he courageously shares vivid memories of children being kidnapped from his school in Baghdad and school closures resulting from bombings and threats of bomb attacks.

Meeron Chamoun shares vivid memories of children being kidnapped in Baghdad as his father, Majid Chamoun, and twin siblings, Karol and Karaam, listen in. — Photo by Melissa Engle/MCC

“They kidnapped 16 kids from my school,” he said, explaining that kidnappings usually take place at the end of the school day when many students leave the school grounds at the same time.

Chamoun also remembers the explosions and threats of explosions in his school.

“I felt very scared,” he said. “I would go to school one day and then stay home for a few days.”

Chamoun and his parents, Majid Chamoun and Missa Hanni, and his siblings, 6-year-old twins Karol and Karaam, now live in Amman waiting for resettlement in another country.

“We don’t have a future in Amman,” Hanni said. “There is pain in this waiting, but we know that someday things will change.”

The lack of peaceful options to deal with conflicts in Iraq has resulted in a cycle of violence that has uprooted and displaced nearly 5 million people. About 3 million have found refuge in safer regions in Iraq, and about 2 million have found safety in other countries, mainly Syria and Jordan.

This family is among 25,000 Iraqi Christians who have fled to Jordan, said Father Raymond Moussalli, who was sent in 2002 by the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad to start a church in Amman for Chaldean Catholic refugees from Iraq.

Through financial donations from individuals and grants from Mennonite Central Committee and other partner organizations, Moussalli’s church provides a variety of services and programs to support Iraqi families, including youth programs, Sunday school classes, after-school programs, training programs, health services and humanitarian aid.

Mousalli said when he visits Iraqi refugees living in Jordan he senses their strong desire to return to their homes and families still living in Iraq, but many cannot return until peace is restored in their communities.