Father Elias Zahlawi during his honoring: A Syrian resurrection is coming

 In appreciation of his humanitarian and cultural giving over more than fifty years, Kayan Cultural Development Foundation honored Father Elias Zahlawi. The honoring came during the final preparations for the song “Keep Hope In Us” by the late  singer Mayada Bsilis, which will be sung by the Kayan children’s choir under the supervision of Maestro Samir Kwifati.

In a statement to SANA, Father Zahlawi said: “In light of Syria’s current difficult reality, I find that we have to return to hope, because for more than ten years we have challenged the impossible and were able to withstand until the advocates of materialistic thought in the West described our steadfastness as close to a miracle.”

Father Zahlawi continued: “It is true that today we suffer from difficult circumstances and great disparities between people’s conditions, but we say that the bet is on hope, which emerges from the heart of despair.”

Father Zahlawi affirmed his absolute certainty that the resurrection of Syria is coming, and that whoever bets on man and on the Syrian child in particular is betting on the future, because this country has been blessed by God with great gifts of alphabet, music, agriculture, civilization and first engineering, and it is the cradle of religions.

Father Zahlawi expressed his hope to reconsider everything that builds the child from school, the home, the arts and all means of entertainment, and what builds the child through joy, hope, love, self-confidence, freedom and discovering and developing talent.

Father Zahlawi praised efforts made by Kayan Foundation, as he considered it a Syrian model in building the Syrian entity and a nucleus that must be emulated in our country. He highlighted the cooperation of Maestro Kwefati with the musical supervisor of children, Saada al-Hakim, to teach children joy, self-confidence, and singing with others which is considered a very important matter in building their personalities.

Regarding honoring Father Zahlawi, Al-Hakim indicated that the Foundation works under the supervision of this creative person, who is the first and true supporter of it.  Honoring Zahlawi is a token of thanks for everything he offers to all Syrians without exception.

Al-Hakim referred to the projects that Kayan is currently working on, including cooperation with kindergartens and schools through the establishment of cultural and musical activities and work on educational curricula to reduce pressure on students during the study period.

Inas Abdulkareem