Villanova Students Stand In Solidarity With Syrian Refugees
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Students at Villanova University Wednesday night held a vigil for the people of Syria who are in the middle of a civil war.
Fighting caused 28-year-old Zaid Ojjeh to flee his home in Damascus, Syria five years ago:
"As everybody can see, every day it's getting worse than I made the choice of coming here and applying for asylum here."
Zaid now lives in Blue Bell and works at WAWA. He says like many other refugees, he left his mother, father and brother in his quest to live in peace:
"They want me to have a good life. It's not just somebody looking for just I want a better life I want to come to the united states. It's I don't have a place to live. I want a place to live."
At the vigil hundreds of students came out to hear Zaid's and other refugees' stories. They lit candles, sang hymns and said prayers to let them know they stand in solidarity with them.
"I hope that people were able to humanize the refugee crisis through the stories that they heard," this student says. "They deserve the same level of human dignity and respect that we would afford anyone that we met in our daily lives."