Waterford — A glimpse into the garage of the Rev. Ed Kakaty reveals a lone plaid couch, donated by a Niantic family, purposeless for the moment.

In the mind of Kakaty, pastor of the St. Ann Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the couch one day will belong to a refugee family welcomed to the area from Syria or another Middle Eastern country, regardless of the family's faith.

"They're human beings. They're our brothers and sisters," he said. "Why do we have to be exclusive? Jesus didn't die on the cross just for Christians — he died for everyone."

Kakaty is one of many local leaders, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and otherwise, working to prepare southeastern Connecticut for refugees on the heels of a September announcement: The United States, which accepts 70,000 refugees each year, will take 30,000 more refugees annually — many of them Syrian — by 2017.

More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the Syrian Civil War began in early 2011, contributing to what's frequently been called the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

The vast majority of them — with 50 percent being female, 50 percent being children and many being members of the middle class — have landed in refugee camps in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

But deciding to make even those trips — short in comparison to the ones some Syrian refugees are making to get to Germany — isn't easy, according to Old Lyme resident Nada Awwa.

Awwa, who came to the United States from Syria in 1992 and whose parents and sister still live there, described the obstacles faced by families who leave: checkpoints manned by the various groups at play in Syria, hefty costs for smugglers and, sometimes, violent border guards.

"To take that trip, that trip has to look not so bad compared to what you have experienced in the past few years," Awwa said.

With many parts of the country lacking running water and electricity, she said, some families see little choice.

"The ability to provide for family is getting dimmer and slimmer," Awwa explained. "People with children are looking for a better future for their kids, because schools have been bombed, education has been disrupted. How long can you keep the kids out of school?"

Even after Syrians are chosen, largely through the United Nations' resettlement program, to come to the United States, extensive security screenings and other logistical hoops often make the journey take more than 18 months.

On Oct. 11, an almost 30-person, interfaith group came together in Berlin to further discuss the Hope for Humanity Syrian Refugee Initiative, which they hope will make refugees' transition to the United States easier.

Part of that initiative is an effort called "10 in 10," an attempt to prepare 10 cities/regions across Connecticut, including New London and Old Lyme, to take 10 Syrian refugee families, each.

For Old Lyme, Steve Jungkeit, senior minister of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, is heading the effort.

His church, he explained, has helped resettle refugees in the past — first from Laos, then from Rwanda.

"There's a history in our community of doing this," Jungkeit said. "This is on a larger scale, but it's a larger-scale problem. We're equipped and ready to respond."

The 10 in 10 plan, New London resident Mongi Dhaouadi explained, was born out of the group's first meeting, which was called shortly after an image of a Syrian toddler — washed up on shore, face down — went viral late this summer.

"It was a gut-wrenching wake-up call to all of us that we wanted to get together and do something regardless of our faith background," said Dhaouadi, senior program officer at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy in Washington, D.C., and executive director of the Connecticut Council of American-Islamic Relations.

Dhaouadi and the others have included residents, politicians, businesspeople and organizations — such as the interfaith Greater New London Clergy Association, Catholic Charities and local Rotary International clubs — in their quest to find homes, jobs and even transportation for the families they hope will find solace in southeastern Connecticut.

Experts such as Chris George, executive director of New Haven-based Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, are contributing their knowledge, too.

Through IRIS, a program of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, George helps resettle about 200 refugees from around the world each year. They enter in to what he calls a "demanding," "self-help" program in which they must pay off their own air tickets, as well as be paying their own rent in less than half a year.

George, along with Dhaouadi, actively has called on the United States to take more refugees annually, saying that accepting both 70,000 and 100,000 — 0.02 percent and 0.03 percent of the country's population, respectively — pales in comparison to countries such as Lebanon, where refugees now make up about 20 percent of the population.

"Sometimes people will say, there are Americans, people born in this country who need help, shouldn't we be helping them instead of bringing refugees here?" George said. "The answer is we must do both. Simple as that. This country has always done both."

Kakaty, who also has relatives in Syria, said it's important to support Syrians who want to stay in the country, too.

The son of Syrian parents, Kakaty said his first cousins live in Aleppo, Syria. One of them, he said, was kidnapped after church one Sunday, a note finding its way to his relatives shortly afterward: $25,000 if you want him back alive.

Since 2011, Kakaty's church on Cross Road has showed its support with a small, black-and-white sign standing in its front lawn, urging passersby to "pray for peace in Syria."

Parishioners at St. Ann's also have given money to Knights of Columbus, headquartered in New Haven, which has sent $500,000 for general relief to the Greek Melkite Catholic Archdiocese of Aleppo since the war began.

"I would love to see Syria at peace again and the people staying there, or returning there," Kakaty said. "It is a beautiful country and it breaks my heart that the people who lived together in harmony for hundreds of years are now torn apart."

l.boyle@theday.com

Twitter: @LindsayABoyle