Syria's Children

Idlib, Syria

Displaced: Unknown

Fatima lives in Kumlu, Turkey with her five brothers, three sisters, and their mother. 

Her teachers say Fatima works extremely hard in school, and that she’s sensitive to other students and her surroundings.

Fatima’s family had fled to a small farm in their village to escape the conflict, but during a shelling of the farm, her father was killed. 

She’s currently in the 6th grade.

Fatima is eleven years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Idlib, Syria

Displaced: Unknown

Emtithal lives in the village of Kumlu, Turkey with her eight-year-old brother and their grandmother.

She is in the 5th grade at a small school for Syrian refugees.

Her teachers say Emtithal is always happy and laughing, and that she’s great at public speaking. 

They say she likes everyone and is very empathetic. 

Emtithal’s mother was a doctor in Syria, but was killed when the clinic she was working at was shelled. 

Her father fled to a Persian Gulf state. 

Emtithal is ten years old. 

Interviewed May 2014

Small Village on the Outskirts of Idlib, Syria

Displaced: unknown

Thanaa lives in Kumlu, Turkey. 

She’s in the 5th grade at a school for Syrian children, and is enrolled in a special class for children severally affected by the war. 

Thanaa’s village was completely destroyed in the fighting, and she describes it now as “only a memory”. 

Thanaa says, “I would ask the world to put themselves in our shoes.”

Thanaa is ten years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Idlib, Syria

Displaced: Two months

Timaa lives Antakya, Turkey with her seven family members. 

She loves to paint, and her favorite color is red. 

Timaa thinks swimming is the best sport in the world, and hopes to learn how to swim one day. 

Her family was forced to relocate twice after the houses they were living in were destroyed by the Syrian government’s shelling of Idlib. 

Timaa witnessed barrel bombs, killings, and much of the war’s four years of destruction, since her family waited so long to flee the conflict. 

The thing Timaa cherishes most in the world is her mother.

She wants, more than anything, to return to Syria.

Timaa is nine years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Idlib, Syria

Displaced: Two months

Azzam lives in Antakya, Turkey with his four siblings and their parents. 

Before leaving Syria, Azzam and his family moved houses twice, but both times their house was hit by shelling. 

Azzam likes to eat chips and snacks.

His favorite color is red.

Horses are his favorite animal. 

When he grows up, Azzam wants to be a doctor.

Azzam is five years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Idlib, Syria

Displaced: Unknown

Tareq lives in Antakya, Turkey with his mother and sister. 

He goes to school for a few hours a day at a school for Syrian refugees, and when he isn’t in school, he’s working at a restaurant for one Turkish lira ($0.33) an hour. 

His fifteen-year-old sister works as a wedding planner, and his mother works at a restaurant. 

Tareq’s father was killed trying to defend their village in Syria. 

If he could have one thing, Tareq says “I want a world that is responsible and that will stop this war.”

Tareq is twelve years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Al-Bayda, Syria

Displaced: Three months

Hussein lives Antakya, Turkey, where he shares a living space with eleven members of his extended family. 

He loves swimming and football, and his idol is Lionel Messi on the Barcelona football team. 

Hussein’s favorite color is red.

Bears are his favorite animal.

He likes looking at photos of his city. 

Hussein said he witnessed the massacre in his home city of al-Bayda, where he saw women and children being murdered, and people getting their heads cut off. 

He said the only way he survived was by hiding. 

After the massacre, Hussein’s family fled to Aleppo for safety, but his uncle and aunt were both killed there. 

Hussein says, “Obama should be ashamed because he has not helped the Syrian people.”

Hussein is twelve years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Unknown region, Syria

Displaced: Three months

Rawan is in the 4th grade at a school for Syrian refugees near where she lives in Antakya, Turkey. 

When she has free time, she spends it doing her homework.

Her favorite class in school is English.

When she grows up, Rawan wants to be a doctor so she can take care of people. 

Rawan and her family left Syria because of ISIS advances on their area. 

She said life in Syria was normal, except for the explosions and fires. 

Her parents and little brother were traveling to Raqqa when their car was hit by a rocket, killing everyone inside. 

She now lives with her grandparents.

Rawan is ten years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Idlib, Syria

Displaced: Six months

Nasur lives in Antakya, Turkey with his mother, 2 sisters, and his uncle’s family. 

He broke his wrist playing football with his friends, his favorite football team is Real Madrid, and he loves Cristiano Ronaldo. 

A year ago, Nasur’s father went to a demonstration against the Syrian government in Idlib, and later that night the military came to their house and took him. 

Nasur hasn’t seen his father since, and assumes he’s dead. 

Nasur is twelve years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: One and a half years

Murat lives with seventeen family members in Kilis, Turkey. 

When he has free time, he likes playing with toys.

Murat misses playing on his swing-set in Syria. 

His favorite color is black.

He loves dogs and cats. 

Murat isn’t able to go to school.

Murat is nine years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Five months

Jihad has lives in Kilis, Turkey with his nine siblings and their parents. 

The responsibility to help support the family has fallen on Jihad’s shoulders because he’s one of the oldest children in the household. 

Each day he tries to sell small items like cigarettes and napkins out of a box on the streets of Kilis. 

He rarely has any free time but when he does, he uses it to rest. 

What he misses most about Syria is sitting on the roof of his house in Aleppo, watching over everyone in his neighborhood. 

Jihad is thirteen years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Three months

Taha is living in a small, portable housing unit in a Turkish camp for refugees near the city of Kilis with fifteen members of his extended family.

His family was forced to flee their home because of the constant shelling in Aleppo. 

Taha’s family first left Aleppo for the Bab Al-Salaam border crossing with Turkey, but had to turn back to Aleppo. 

They waited in Aleppo as long as they could, but shelling forced them once again to make their way back to the border. 

They lived in the makeshift camp at Bab Al-Salaam, on the Syrian side of the border, for a month before finally being admitted to the Turkish camp in Kilis. 

His 27 and 23-year-old older brothers were seriously injured in the shelling of Aleppo, and his 18-year-old brother was severely burned and is now disabled. 

Abdullah goes to religious school in the Kilis camp.

Taha is nine years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Three months

Abdullah is living in a small, portable housing unit in a Turkish camp for refugees near the city of Kilis with fifteen members of his extended family.

His family was forced to flee their home because of the constant shelling in Aleppo. 

Abdullah’s family first left Aleppo for the Bab Al-Salaam border crossing with Turkey, but had to turn back to Aleppo. 

They waited in Aleppo as long as they could, but shelling forced them once again to make their way back to the border. 

They lived in the makeshift camp at Bab Al-Salaam, on the Syrian side of the border, for a month before finally being admitted to the Turkish camp in Kilis. 

His 27 and 23-year-old older brothers were seriously injured in the shelling of Aleppo, and his 18-year-old brother was severely burned and is now disabled. 

Abdullah goes to religious school in the Kilis camp, and when he grows up he hopes to become a tailor. 

He describes life in Aleppo as very difficult because of all the shelling. 

Abdullah says he couldn’t go outside in Aleppo because of the bombings, and that he was always waiting for the next attack. 

He misses his house, his street, and his old life in Aleppo. 

He wants the world to help Syria.

Abdullah is fourteen years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: One month

Selma is living in an unfinished concrete apartment building in Kilis, Turkey. 

She and her family slept in a park for three weeks before theyfound the space where they now live.

Selma’s father says the Turkish man who owns the building is letting them stay there for free, and their Turkish neighbors let them run a wire from their house for electricity.

The building has no windows or doors, so the family draped what few blankets they could gather over the openings. 

Selma says they moved three times in Syria before finally fleeing to Turkey. 

Reading and drawing were Selma’s favorite subjects before she stopped going to school over a year ago. 

Selma likes playing with toys, wants to have a cat as a pet, and dreams of becoming a teacher when she grows up. 

She wasn’t able to bring anything to Turkey besides her clothing, and she misses her house in Aleppo.

Selma is ten years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: One week

Muhammed and the eight members of his family are searching for a place to live in Kilis, Turkey. 

If they are unable to find somewhere to stay, they will return to Aleppo but are currently sharing a small house with 35 extended family members. 

Muhammed started going to school in Aleppo, but there was shelling all over the city, and his father wouldn’t let him go back. 

He likes Real Madrid.

His favorite food is Aleppo’s famous kibbeh.

He wants to be a teacher when he grows up. 

Muhammed says he misses playing with his friends.

Muhammed is seven years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: One week

Rama and the eight members of her family are searching for a place to live in Kilis, Turkey. 

If they are unable to find somewhere to stay they will return to Aleppo but are currently sharing a small house with 35 extended family members. 

She left school in the middle of the 5th grade because her father wouldn’t let her go during the city’s frequent bombings. 

Rama loves drawing, and wants to be a teacher when she grows up. 

Her favorite subject in school is reading. 

Her father says a barrel bomb hit near their house and completely terrified the children, and that they couldn’t speak for over a day. 

He was worried that they might have been hit with some form of chemical weapon because his children’s eyes were irritated. He decided to flee to Turkey. 

Rama says the past few months in Aleppo she remembers nothing but war. 

Rama is eleven years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: One month

Omar is living in Kilis, Turkey. 

He should be in the seventh grade, but Omar stopped going to school two years ago because of the war. 

He likes learning the English language, and dreams of being a teacher someday. 

Omar is the middle child in his family of eight, and they live in what he describes as a nice house in Kilis. 

Omar says he’s happy in Turkey because it’s safer than Syria.

His family finally decided to leave for Turkey because of an increase in the number of barrel bombs being dropped on their neighborhood. 

Omar says there was a lot of shelling in Aleppo before they left. 

He misses his school in Syria the most.  

Omar is eleven years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo countryside, Syria

Displaced: Two months

Muhammad lives in Kilis, Turkey with his mother and two other family members.

He fled Aleppo because shelling destroyed his house, and the increase in barrel bombs in their area made them fear for their lives. 

He likes the color red.

His favorite animals are birds. 

He isn’t able to attend school.

Muhammad is seven years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Three months

Lujain lives with his family of nine in an unfurnished apartment building in Gaziantep Turkey. 

She relocated five times inside Syria before finally moving with her family to Turkey. 

When she was leaving Syria, her mother gave her a folder of important documents to give her father in Turkey. 

Her parents said she didn’t know that all the family’s important documents were in the folder but knew she had to get it to her father so she refused to let it go during the seven hour journey to safety. 

Her favorite color is pink.

Cats are her favorite animal.

Lujain wants to be a teacher when she grows up. 

She likes life in Turkey more than Syria.

Lujain is six years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Four months

Ahmed has lived in a dilapidated apartment in Gaziantep, Turkey for four months with his five family members. 

He was burned in an accidental gas explosion seven months ago, suffers from a growth disability, and is mentally challenged. 

Ahmed likes Turkey, although he neither works nor goes to school. 

He likes the color red.

He likes the Barcelona football team. 

His favorite food is barbecued chicken. 

He greatly misses the uncle who he has not seen since the start of the war, when the uncle fled to Libya. 

Ahmed is sixteen years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Ahmed, Mohammed, Doha, their father, and little sister stand in their apartment in Gaziantep, Turkey.

May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Five months

Mahmoud lives in Kilis, Turkey with his two aunts, cousins, two siblings, and his parents. 

His favorite food is molokhia.

He likes Aleppo’s Al-Ittihad football team. 

He goes to a Syrian school in Kilis, and when he grows up, Mahmoud wants to be a doctor. 

He says there was constant shelling in Aleppo before he left, but that one day a helicopter appeared in the sky, so his family went and hid in the basement. A barrel bomb was dropped outside their apartment while they were hiding and shrapnel tore through most of the house.

They fled to Turkey the next day. 

He misses his uncle who is still in Aleppo.

Mahmoud is eleven years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Four months

Mohammed lives in a dilapidated apartment in Gaziantep, Turkey with his five family members. 

He works more than 60 hours a week in a Turkish trinket factory where he earns around $80 a month. 

Mohammed likes living in Turkey because it is safe, but doesn’t like how he’s treated by the Turkish people. 

Life was difficult for Mohammed in the months before he left Aleppo because of the daily shelling, and how expensive everything had become by the third year of the war. 

He speaks with sadness of being forced to spend entire days inside his house to stay safe from the shelling. 

Mohammed misses his homeroom teacher and his neighborhood in Aleppo the most.

Mohammed is fourteen years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Four months

Doha lives in a dilapidated apartment in Gaziantep, Turkey with her family of five. 

Doha hasn’t gone to school since the war started in 2011. 

She isn’t able to afford the transportation to the closest Syrian school in Gaziantep. 

Her favorite subject is math.

When her parents decided they needed to leave for Turkey, in the middle of the night, Doha was relived and happy. 

All she was able to bring with her when they left were some clothes, but she likes living in Turkey because it’s safe. 

She misses her community in Syria, and the weekly family get-togethers at her grandfather’s house. 

Doha is eleven years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Four months

Hamza lives in Kilis, Turkey with his parents and five brothers. 

He likes to study and wants to be a doctor, but hasn’t been able to go to school for the past three years. 

Hamza likes football.

His favorite food is a Syrian dish named molokhia.

He plays in the a local Turkish park with his friends for fun. 

Hamza and his family lived in one of the areas of Aleppo where the majority of the government’s barrel bombs were dropped over the past year. 

After three months of intense barrel bombings, a mortar hit their house, and that’s when Hamza’s father decided it was time to leave. 

His father says that when the family was leaving Syria, Hamza was worried that Turkey wouldn’t have snacks and chocolates in the store. 

Hamza misses his house in Aleppo.

The only thing Hamza brought with him to Turkey were some clothes and his favorite yo-yo.

Hamza is eleven years old.

Interviewed May 2014

Aleppo, Syria

Displaced: Fifteen days

Makmood lives in Kilis, Turkey with his eleven-year-old brother and their uncle. 

He misses his parent who are both still in Aleppo. 

Makmood has been out of school for two years.

He wants to be when he grows up because he isn’t sure he’ll live. 

He says life in Aleppo was a relationship with jets, “when they were out you stayed inside and they weren’t in the sky you could go out in the street.”

Makmood is thirteen years old.

Interviewed May 2014