Since the Orphan School began, many of the girls have married, thirty
have become teachers, and about twenty of them are living as servants in
families.
In August of the year 1861, the Deaconesses had received about 110
orphans. The children entering are received for three years, and the
surviving parent or guardian is required to sign a bond, agreeing to
leave the child for that period, or if the child is withdrawn before
that time, to pay to the Deaconesses all that has been expended upon
her.
In the summer of 1861, several of the parents came and tried to remove
their children, though they had no means of supporting them, but the
contract stood in the way, and they had no money to pay. The Jesuits
then came forward and furnished the parents with French gold in
Napoleons, and withdrew in one day fifty orphan girls from the
institution, sending them, not to an institution of their own, but
turning them back upon their wretched parents and friends to be trained
in poverty and ignorance. A few days later, thirty more of the girls
were removed in the same way, leaving only thirty. The parents had a
legal right to remove the children on the payment of the money, but what
shall be said of the cruelty of the Jesuits who turned back these
wretched children to the destitution and misery of a Syrian orphan? The
Jesuits are the same everywhere, unscrupulous and intriguing, counting
all means as right, which promote their own end.
THE BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS.
These Schools, so numerous and widely extended, have grown up since the
massacre year 1860. I remember well the first arrival of Mrs. Bowen
Thompson in Beirut, and her persevering energy in forming her little
school for the widows and orphans of Hasbeiya, Deir el Komr and
Damascus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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