![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/LaMasiondesEnfants.jpg\")
<\/a>“La Maison des enfants” in Damascus, \u00a9 Z\u00e9na.<\/p><\/div> \u201cA bomb exploded a few meters away from my house.<\/strong> I should have been in the place of the explosion to reach my work place. But that day I was ten minutes late. It was a sign of fate.\u201d Her voice was clear, calm, and in perfect French, showing a serenity that contrasted with the sound of bombs and airplanes that alternate in the daily life of the capital, Damascus. Z\u00e9na was born in Lebanon 35 years ago, and arrived in Syria last July. A member of the Focolare Movement, she had decided to join the country at war, after a long reflection. In her birthplace, she had experienced the war and bombs. \u201cI kept it all inside me. I was scared. But one day I started to see things in a positive light. I entrusted all to God and came to Damascus with the Focolare.\u201d In the first 6 months she lived under the air raids. \u201cUp to December the raids were daily, but we still managed to continue our lives,\u201d she said, \u201cuntil that day in January when a bomb fell just a few meters from the house. In Syria, despite the courage of the inhabitants, fear and danger are always close at hand.\u201d Z\u00e9na works for the \u201cMaison des enfants\u201d<\/strong> run by the Movement in cooperation with others, in the poor district of Douela in Damascus. The centre has four classes for 90 children aged 6 to 10. Eight teachers are all young Syrian scholars. \u201cWe called it the \u2019Children\u2019s Home\u2019 because we want to be their family. We receive many requests which we are unable to accept. We gather the poorer children, many of whom have lost both parents or who suffered violence. They need to be surrounded by adults who love them.\u201d In February, the \u201cMaison\u201d had to close for several weeks due to an attack. \u201cIt was a terrible moment when the children were asked if they were afraid of the bombings. Most of them answered evasively, rejecting the reality. There is a lot of suffering related to the consequences of the war.\u201d The center reopened at the start of April, to the great joy of the students. \u201cThey are really happy to come, and sad when they have to leave.\u201d Life has resumed in Syria<\/strong>. Now the country is almost entirely under the control of the Syrian government. \u201cDuring the weekends, the bars are open up to one or two in the morning. The people are stressed, they need an outlet.\u201d Zena lives at the \u201cEast Gate\u2013 Bab Sharqi\u201d of Damascus, in the old city. Few bombs have fallen in 7 years in the neighbourhood, although the signs of long years of conflict are evident. \u201cToday there is little work. Many young people have gone to Europe or Lebanon to avoid having to do military service, or to find a job. In Syria, there is a ratio of 10 women to 1 man.\u201d The Focolare Movement serenely carries out its mission. \u201cHere the Christians are protected by the government. We are well respected. After 7 years of war, the eastern churches were able to hold the Easter processions in the streets. At the end of the conflict \u2013 she continued \u2013 precisely the Syrian people will be the ones to rebuild the country. The worksite is enormous. Damascus is not destroyed but the damage is immense in the Aleppo and Homs regions. The Syrian lira has lost most of its value and many wealthy families have become poor. The elite have disappeared, and there are only people in great need. How do the young graduates find a job? Despite this, many have remained. They believe in the restoration of their country.\u201d Before the physical reconstruction and economic recovery, Syria will have to uproot the armed conflicts in its territory.<\/strong> Z\u00e9na is convinced that the end of the war is near. \u201cIf there are no external interventions, I\u2019m sure that the war on Syrian soil will be over before 2018 ends. We have to restore work and dignity to the people. I really hope that little by little, the enterprises will return, and so will the tourists. We have to give a new motivation to the Syrians, starting from the children who are the pillars of future society, and \u201cHer\u201d children, precisely. Today it\u2019s Zena\u2019s turn to prepare lunch. Every day I come to work with incredible joy.\u201d Source: imprimaturweb.fr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A brief summary of the Imprimatur Web interview done by Lohan Benaarti with Zena of the Focolare community of Damascus, who talks about the hopes for the rebirth of a country martyred by the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}