The night was filled with the crying of children who mistook every passing plane for an airstrike, as the first wave of Christians fleeing the Islamic State in Mosul arrived in Fr Khalil Jaar’s parish in Jordan.
It was August of 2014 and the Catholic priest hosted them in the church and his office.
“That was the first group of families to be fleeing Mosul. They had been given an ultimatum: convert, pay tax for being Christian, leave or die,” Fr Jaar said yesterday.
The only possession of the refugees that find shelter at the St Mary’s Church in the Marka neighbourhood of Amman is the clothes they are wearing.
“Once I saw a nine-year-old girl with severely inflamed earlobes. I approached her mum, suggesting we take her to an Italian hospital close by. She told me that when they fled their home at 5am, she forgot to remove her daughters’ earrings. At the IS checkpoint, a man just tore her earrings off, leaving her with bleeding ears.
“The family had to walk the dusty and hot 35 km stretch to Erbil, and she contracted an infection. These are the children that arrive at our parish. Traumatised children,” Fr Jaar said.
He was speaking to this newspaper about his experience with refugees ahead of the launch of the biannual Aid to the Church report, called Persecuted and Forgotten? Fr Jaar was the key speaker at the launch by the Catholic charity today at Sala Madonna tal-Karmnu, Valley Road, Birkirkara.
The priest helps provide medical assistance, food and education to refugees from Syria, Iraq and other Middle Eastern regions.
Born in Bethlehem, Fr Jaar’s family moved to Amman as Palestinian refugees in 1967, following the Arab-Israeli six-day war.
At the IS checkpoint, a man just tore her earrings off, leaving her with bleeding ears
He was ordained in 1976 and is now the parish priest of St Mary’s Church, situated in one of the poorest areas hosting 400 families.
Apart from support from the local Christian and Muslim communities, last year, ACN was the only international organisation that helped him out, donating €50,000 for the purchase of food and medicine.
“It is very difficult for most of these refugees to accept that they are now empty-handed, as they used to be rich. But I reassure them: don’t worry, I’m a member of a refugee family. On the day we fled, God provided us with help. It is now my turn to help you out, and the next time round, it will be your turn to pass on that help.”
His work once landed him in the hands of terrorists.
One day in 2006, he arrived in Baghdad to take two sick children from the city’s hospital back to Jordan so they could receive medical treatment in Madrid.
He was kidnapped and spent a week in captivity.
“I sat next to one of my kidnappers, who was continuously sharpening knives. The only thought that went through my mind was that I would have my throat slit. I was so scared I forgot how to recite prayers, and trembling and crying, I told God I had ended up there because of him, as it was his love that had urged me to help people. The only thing I could think of saying was to ask Him to help me. I was released after a week.”