ROME -- On Thursday Falack Al Hourani and her family became the first to benefit from a new project to bring those in need to Italy, without risking the dangerous crossing to reach Europe via boat.  7-year-old Falack has eye cancer and “needs urgent care if she’s not to lose the other eye too,” reports Daniela Pompei, head of immigration for the Sant’Egidio Catholic community.

 The family are made up of Falek’s mother Yasmine, her electrician father Suleyman, and six-year-old brother Hussein, who emerged from the aeroplane at Rome Fiumicino clutching a toy rabbit.  They fled Syria two years ago, as the bombs started falling on their home city of Homs and had been living in a garage in Tripoli, northern Lebanon.

 Flown in on humanitarian visas, the family immediately filed a request for asylum and their fingerprints were taken before being allowed to cross into Italy.

 This new project had been co-organised by the Sant’Egidio Catholic community, the Federation of Evangelical Churches and the Valdese Evangelical Church and it is they who picked the Al Hourani family to be the first to make the crossing from Lebanon to Rome.

 There is hope that this “experimental humanitarian corridor”, which is based on a sponsorship system, could be extended to the rest of Europe, if successful, and will be presented to Europe’s Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos next month.

 There will be no cost to the general public, with the expenses of hospitality, legal aid and Italian lessons, amongst others, being covered by the non-profit organisations behind the project, who will draw for the most part on  religious donations, whilst families will initially be housed by volunteers.

 Sant’Egidio informs us that the programme is aimed at the most vulnerable members of society such as single mothers, handicapped people, pregnant women and sick children.  They hope to see over 1,000 people of various nationalities being brought to safety in Italy over the next couple of years.

 Even in the month that they have known that they would be the first to make the crossing Yasmine and her family have learnt a fair amount of Italian and when asked what he would do once he reached Rome 6-year-old Hussein replied “Study the language”.