“In our family we like the idea of being able to give part of our time. We are volunteers in the parish, at the Sunday school. We are used to being volunteers everywhere there is the chance to give. This is because we believe that as well as reading the teachings in the Bible, it is important to live them.”
With these words, Johny Hazboun talks about his service at the Franciscan Boys Home in Bethlehem. Together with his wife, Niveen Hazboun, they have been working for a few years with the children of the house of the Custody of the Holy Land.
The Franciscan Boys Home in Bethlehem was founded in 2007 by the Custody of the Holy Land to take in Christian children and teenagers, between the ages of 6 and 18, from families facing severe social and economic difficulties.
In the morning Niveen looks after the house and with her husband they spend the afternoons with the children, playing with them, helping them with their homework and praying together, just like a family.
Johnny’s bond with the Franciscan friars passes through his work as a physical education teacher at the Terra Sancta School in Bethlehem. He started to take part now and again in the activities of the Franciscan Boys Home, on the request of a Franciscan friar. Soon afterwards, his commitment became a real job, although, as Johnny emphasizes, “Everything that I do for these boys is not work for me, it is something I want to give and not take anything from them.”
Meeting Fra Sandro Tomašević, who is in charge of the home, was fundamental for the mission of Johnny and Niveen. “One day,” Johnny says, “Fra Sandro asked me to be here in the home together with my wife Niveen, not as two employees, but as husband and wife to look after these boys.”
Fra Sandro, observing Niveen’s commitment to supporting her husband as a volunteer in the home’s activities, realized their special bond with the youngsters. Seeing how affectionately Johnny and Niveen treated them, almost as though they were their own children, he decided to ask the couple to take on an official role in the home.
The story of Johnny and Niveen shows love and dedication for these youngsters. It is an experience which enriches not only them as parents, but their whole family as well. Every time they can, Johnny and Niveen involve their daughters in the home’s activities. “It is important,” says Niveen,”that these boys learn how to behave well and to socialize. When our girls come, they play together, cook and help in the various activities of the home.”
“It is also fundamental,” Johnny adds, “that these youngsters feel that we consider them as our children. They have to see that we treat them the same way as we treat our daughters. From the first day we have always said that we are like a family, the Franciscan Boys Home is our home and they are our children.”
A small gesture or extra attention make the difference, as Niveen says: “One evening, there was a child who needed to be reassured. So I stayed a little longer with him and hugged him until I saw he was calm and could go to bed without feeling anxious.”
At the Franciscan Boys Home Johnny and Niveen also look after the Christian education of the boys. “Before dinner,” Niveen tells us, “we all pray together in the chapel, we sing with them, we leave them the time to write some prayers which we recite before eating, all together, like a family.”
The Franciscan Boys home has been a landmark and a home for many boys from Bethlehem, giving them hope for a better future despite the difficulties each one has. “Many boys,” says Johnny, “who have lived at the Franciscan Boys Home, are adults today, they have finished school, some have continued at university or found a permanent job. Some even return as volunteers to help and fondly remember this place and the time they spent here.”
Lucia Borgato
