This article was written by Nicole Villalpando and
was published in the Austin American-Statesman on December 25, 2017.
Sami Khalil Ashour and his family were gathered in the parking lot of their new apartment. The children — Hadi, 13, Fadi, 11, Hala, 8, Jana, 3, and Halil, 1 — were riding new bikes donated by Waste Connections on Thursday.
And then a 2017 Dodge Grand Caravan with a big bow on the windshield drove up. As the van doors opened, out popped Interfaith Action of Central Texas Executive Director Simone Talma Flowers, Apple Leasing salesman Buddy Wall and AeLK Foundation’s Anne Elizabeth Wynn and her daughter Larkin Wynn.
While the kids got new wheels on Thursday, so, too, did their parents. A new van was the biggest item on the Syrian refugees’ wish list.
“We’re very lucky,” Ashour said.
“I was very surprised,” Ashour’s wife, Ahlam Fouad Al Battal, said.
The family is one of the featured families in the Statesman Season for Caring program, which highlights the stories of 12 families and then helps hundreds of others through local nonprofit organizations. The Ashours were nominated by Interfaith Action, which has been helping them rebuild their life in Austin after the Syrian civil war caused them to flee first to Jordan and then to the United States.
AeLK Foundation donated the money for the van to Interfaith Action, and Apple Leasing found the van and sold it to Interfaith Action for the Ashours at cost.
“People coming from other places to make a new life for themselves is the literal definition of America,” said Anne Elizabeth Wynn. “We are joyful to find a way to honor that.”
“As a family, we’re very heartbroken to see the turn in the tone and spirit and leadership in America,” Wynn said.
Her family, she said, “had actively wanted to seek a Muslim refugee family we could be of service to. We’re joyful to provide the car and be of help.”
The Ashour children and their parents explored the car and learned its features. Hadi offered to start driving it. He’ll have to wait at least another three years.
