On Saturday 10 June 2023, the Vice-president of the Central Committee, The Revd Catriona Laing, Ms. Karen Papellero from St. Martha & St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Leuven, and the Secretary-General greeted 24 Syrian newcomers to Belgium at Zaventem airport. This is the second time that the Anglican Church in Belgium has partnered with Humanitarian Corridors & Sant’Egidio to sponsor and welcome a family from Syria.
Marianne & Mishleen are in their early 20’s and will be living in Leuven. The local Anglican church will help them in many practical ways on a daily basis, as well as guiding them through the asylum seeking application process, and to help them integrate. A team of volunteers has been preparing their apartment for weeks and are they thrilled that Mishleen & Marianne have finally arrived!
Thankfully, their parents and younger brother have also been welcomed by a Roman Catholic parish in Antwerpen. This means that the family was able to travel together and the sisters will be able to live independently with students of the same age. Of course, the family will learn a lot about the trains in Belgium whenever they want to visit each other. An added blessing is that some cousins came to Belgium during the first edition of Humanitarian Corridors in 2019 and are able to translate Dutch and Arabic which should help them as well.
It is never easy to leave your home and start to make a new life in a new country. We give thanks that they have made it this far and we are honoured to walk together with them on this part of their journey. We wish all of them many happy and joy-filled years in Belgium.
