It is called the Al-Tahira Secondray School, located in Qaraqosh, and will hold 625 students.
They shout for joy, and not just for any reason. These Dominican sisters have inagurated a school in Iraq, in the Ninevah Plains.
It is called the Al-Tahira Secondray School, and will hold 625 students. Most significantly, the school is not a reconstructed building, but a new project that has been able to move forward in an Iraq that is rebuilding itself after ISIS's departure.
The project was made possible largely thanks to the work of Aid to the Church in Need, which helped gather more than 80% of the $2.1 million in needed funds. It was made possible through its benefactors and with help from the Austrian Bishops' Conference, supported by the Austrian government.
DR. THOMAS HEINE-GELDERN
Executive President of ACN International
It has not been easy and that is why I want to pay tribute especially to Sister Clara for make the dream come true.
Local civil and Church officials were present at the school's inauguration, which had a great celebratory atmosphere. Of course, there was no lack of students around as well.
SR. NAZIK MATTY
Everything was destroyed. So to build a new school in the middle of all this was very difficult.
Sister Nazik says that brining this project to fruition was an epic five-year journey. But that it was all worth it in the end.
Christians in Iraq, a minority group that has suffered heavy persecution, want to show that they are not only capable of reconstructing what they've lost, but that they can build new things where before there was left only dust and ruins.
JRB
TR: JM
