As the conflict enters it’s fourth year, Syrian refugee children speak about their experiences during the conflict and give a small glimpse at the scars left as a result.
Join World Vision and other organization in imploring world leaders not to allow the conflict to extend another year. Sign the petition.
Hamze, 8, misses home. He misses his friends. He misses his lifestyle. And, he misses the little things, like picking roses for his mother and the curtains in their big home. The small things that he possibly never thought of before now represent a luxury that is no longer in a makeshift tent that he now calls home.
He is one of more than 1 million children who have lost everything: homes, friends, family and a sense of security.
Don’t let Hazme and other children lose the hope that a brighter future is possible.
Don’t let them become a lost generation.
Join World Vision in providing educational and psychosocial support to refugee children in Lebanon and Jordan.
Implore world leaders not to let this conflict extend any longer. Sign this petition.
Rama, 9, Elaf, 1, Bayan, 12, and Safa, 7, fled their Damascus home in January with their mother and older sister. Their father, a Syrian army defector, is in hiding.
Mercy Corps has been able to reach thousands of families in northern Jordan, improving their shelters and providing them with blankets, mattresses, heaters and other household supplies. But there are many more families like this one, many more children, who need our help.
Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps’ Sumaya Agha recently caught up with a young Syrian refugee who made a lasting impression on her when they met earlier this year:
"I first met eight-year-old Ibrahim and his family at Zaatari refugee camp this past August. I spent the day with the soft-spoken little boy, playing Legos and drawing in Mercy Corps’ activity center for refugee children.
At one point, we sat in the family’s tent, sweating in the desert’s unforgiving summer heat, as his mother, Sabah, spoke to me about her hopes to return home to Syria as soon as possible.
But months later, they are still here, about to face their first winter in the camp. When I returned to visit Ibrahim, the chilly wind sent ripples through the family’s tent.”
Read more, and learn how you can help Ibrahim and other children like him.
Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps
Zeinab needs our help.
Ghadeer, 11, is a Syrian refugee from Damascus. She participates in Mercy Corps’ Comfort for Kids program, activities designed to provide psychosocial support to children who have experienced and continue to experience extreme stress due to the conflict.
Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
Ibrahim is one of a family of eight children from A Sheikh Maskeen, in southern Syria, near the Jordanian border. This sweet eight-year-old is also one of more than 65,000 Syrian refugee children living in Zaatari refugee camp, and one of over a million registered Syrian refugee children throughout the Middle East.
Everyday Mercy Corps holds several activity sessions for the children living at Zaatari. The children learn, develop their fine motor skills and have an enormous amount of fun drawing, painting, participating in storytime, watching movies, crocheting, sewing, playing with Legos and building sandcastles.
Ibrahim happily participates in many of the activities and enjoys building mountains, castles and tunnels out of sand, watching Tom and Jerry and Smurf cartoons, and drawing pictures with trees and grass “… like the grape orchard at home.”
Learn how you can help Ibrahim, and other children like him.
Mercy Corps photographer Sumaya Agha visited Syrian refugee families in Jordan, and writes:
"Even in such tragic circumstances, the kids I’ve met have such a natural inclination toward hope that they focus on what brings them happiness. And I hope we can help them hold on to that."
Bisan’s Leg
Watch the story of Bisan, a 12 year old girl who was injured by shelling in Syria. She is just 1 child of millions of Syrians affected by the Syrian crisis, now coasting towards it’s fourth year of conflict.
PLEASE SIGN UP to our five demands to those people who can end the suffering of children and safeguard their future:
http://bit.ly/nolostgeneration
This film was produced by Save the Children and hosted on EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection’s website.
House of widows and children
Nothing could have prepared me for that building in Irbid in Northern Jordan, close to the Syrian border. A 24-apartment block, home to only widows, single mothers and their children; close to 200 people.
I ended up spending three days listening to and documenting their stories. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen to us”, said one mother. “My son has been scared since he was born”, said another. “I miss going to school”, says a six year old.
So many of the children that I’ve met and talked to in past days, express themselves like grown-ups. Their body language is also not that of children but of adults. They move slowly, not as most children would. Save the Children has found that three in four Syrian children have lost a close friend or a relative as the Syria conflict now enters its third year.
Smiling faces of children welcome me when I enter the building. After all, these are some of the lucky ones.
Read on here.
Fadi, 11, is one of many Syrian refugee children who participated in a recent photography workshop in Lebanon, part of Mercy Corps’ Moving Forward program there.
The goal is to help young Syrian refugees — most of whom feel scared and isolated — integrate into their new community and develop self-esteem, teamwork and coping skills by participating with Lebanese kids in sports, support groups, and creative projects like theater, filmmaking and photojournalism.
During the photography workshops in particular, the youth learn not only the basics of capturing an image, but take an active role in their new lives in Lebanon. Through learning, engaging with their peers and documenting their surroundings, the children learn that each new day can be meaningful even as they wait to go home again.
For Fadi, the photography workshop also meant making new friends and gaining a deeper understanding of his host community in Lebanon.
You can read more about his story and see some of his photographs from the workshop here.
Mercy Corps has been focused on protecting young Syrian refugees since the start of the crisis. We created safe spaces and developed constructive activities where they can heal from trauma, build friendships and develop critical life skills. We are helping meet their families’ basic needs, while continually finding new ways to ensure their emotional health and development are not forgotten.
Your support helps Mercy Corps reach Syria’s youth and vulnerable children with the support and protection they need to survive crises and have hope for the future.
Amir, 10 is haunted by the things he saw in Syria. The question of what happened to his parents… the death of his best friend… and the simple things, like worrying that the birds too, are facing a war-torn home with no food to eat.
His story is heartbreaking – but these stories from Syrian families are sadly, very common.
Amir is just one of 2.5 million Syrian refugees who are struggling to cope with the horrors they’ve experienced. Read more about Amir’s story here.
World Vision is working to help prevent a lost generation of Syrian children, but we need your help.
We need your help to prevent a lost generation of Syrian children. Join World Vision. Donate here.
Mahmoud’s tough life has gotten a lot tougher. The 19-year-old Syrian refugee supports up to 10 members of his family now living in an abandoned building in Irbid, Jordan. He’s out on the dusty streets of the city day and night looking for work so he can eek out enough money to pay for bread for his sibling with special needs, his aunt, cousins, and young nieces and nephews. He earns about $5 to $8 a day — just enough to pay for clean water.
Through conversations, Mahmoud reveals his gentle demeanor. However, there’s a harsher reality behind his brown eyes and ready smile. “There is so much I have seen, so much death and so many dead people on the streets of my home,” Mahmoud says.
His father and older brother were tortured and killed in Syria. Mahmoud fled Syria with hundreds of other men to the border of Jordan.
He was reunited with his mother and aunt at Za’atari Refugee Camp. He still speaks of school and how he hopes to return to the classroom so he can study. Until then, he must be the father figure for his slain brother’s children, Hind, 4, and Mahoud, 3.
The children rarely leave their uncle’s side and Mahmoud is torn each time he has to leave. Before he can cope with his ordeal, Mahmoud must now chase a living for his family’s survival.
(Picture 3-Young Boy) Mohaned, 3, was holding his father’s hand when gunmen walked up to the family in front of heir home in Syria and opened fire, instantly killing the man. Mohaned, whose name means “praise worthy,” rarely speaks and refuses to leave his aunt’s side.
(Picture 4-Boy in front of TV) Abed finds solace by watching TV cartoons. He is 13 and has Down syndrome. Sitting close to the screen helps him drown out other noises—shouts or backfiring cars send him into a screaming fit. “He is very scared,” his mother says. “When he is not watching TV we have to give him medicine to go to sleep.”
Mahmoud, his siblings, nieces and nephews are but a few children who are Crying for their Country. Read about other families and their experiences here.
World Vision is coming along side Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Help prevent a lost generation of children.
![Nasrella, 10, left Syria seven months ago. He hasn’t heard from his father or many of his friends since arriving in Lebanon.
The boy who once earned awards for his academic accomplishments dreams of going back to school. “I miss [school] so much, because I want to learn,” he says.
For now, his dreams of becoming a teacher are on hold—survival comes first.
He is grateful to live in a place without bombs but hopes he can return to school before it is too late.
Read the rest of Nasrella’s story.
World Vision is on the ground in Lebanon and Jordan. Help us make sure that there is No Lost Generation.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/ac5be6d84bdb82ed91effe255901a579/tumblr_n0faqlNuQm1t00dsmo1_250.jpg)
Nasrella, 10, left Syria seven months ago. He hasn’t heard from his father or many of his friends since arriving in Lebanon.
The boy who once earned awards for his academic accomplishments dreams of going back to school. “I miss [school] so much, because I want to learn,” he says.
For now, his dreams of becoming a teacher are on hold—survival comes first.
He is grateful to live in a place without bombs but hopes he can return to school before it is too late.
Read the rest of Nasrella’s story.
World Vision is on the ground in Lebanon and Jordan. Help us make sure that there is No Lost Generation.
"I want to return to Syria. I want to rebuild Syria and all that was destroyed to return as it was before… My country, I love you" Hamzeh, 9, writes his hopes for the future.
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