Athraa's Refugee and Migration Story

St Joseph’s Parish, Warragul and St Ita’s Parish Drouin jointly celebrated the Migrant and Refugee Sunday at Marist Sion Hall. The event provided a platform for individuals from diverse backgrounds to come together and share their remarkable stories.

One of the parishioner Athraa, recounted her and her family’s extraordinary journey from Qura Qush to Warragul.

Athraa's story served as a powerful reminder of the challenges faced by those who leave their homelands in search of safety, security, and a brighter future. Her journey, filled with hardships and triumphs, touched the hearts of those in attendance.

Read Athraa's story below 

My name is Athraa. I am from a little town called Qura Qush, south east of the great city of Nineveh where  the  majority of people in the town were Catholic. I grew up there and finished my university degree. Then I got married to 

my husband Ehab Ballu, who was doing his masters degree in the USA. I moved with him there till he finished his degree. We were blessed to have our daughter Emily during our stay. Then, we had to go back to Iraq in July 2014, just one month before ISIS attacked our town. At that time ISIS gave us two options, either abandon our faith or face the sword, therefore we had to flee among 65,000 people who used to live in the town, to the north part of Iraq.  We lived there as displaced people for two years. We were lucky to be able to share a house with 45 people, many others spent two years living in tents and others in churches.

 

Life was so hard and unsafe, many people started seeking opportunities for asylum in safe countries. In 2016, and after losing any hope that the situation would improve, my husband and I decided to leave for Jordan as asylum seekers. We spent the toughest three years in our life over there. We never thought that our application to live in Australia would be approved as we believed that this is a dream that will never come true, yet, we received a call from the Australian embassy for an interview where our application has been approved and

 so we moved and settled down with my husband Ehab, my daughter Emily and my son Peter who was born later on in Australia to add more joy to our lives.

We wondered why God allowed that to happen, that question stood out in our minds for a while, then we realised that God had a plan, He wanted to spread his seeds around the world, to rise and shine in his glory so they can tell their stories for others so that they know no matter how difficult our life could be as long as we know how to live it through Jesus Christ.