After seven years of conflict in their families’ home country, these seven-year-old refugee children have never known a Syria at peace. Here, they show us their favorite toys.
It has been seven years since the devastating conflict in Syria began in March 2011. In those years, more than 5.4 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries, seeking safety as refugees. Millions more have been forced to leave their homes, but stayed within Syrian borders – the UN’s Refugee Agency estimates that 6.1 million people are internally displaced.
This vast group of civilians have managed to escape violence and terror by leaving behind the homes, schools, neighborhoods they grew up in. But nearly three million people remain in areas that are besieged or very hard to reach for aid agencies, according to the United Nations – leaving them to the mercy of bombings with little access to humanitarian assistance.
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Action Against Hunger is working in Syria and its neighboring countries, doing everything we can to meet urgent needs of Syrian women, men, and children. We are providing food assistance, improving access to clean water and safe sanitation, and more to help families survive.
In Jordan – one of Syria’s neighbors that has seen a large influx of refugees – we help Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanian host communities. We have a team of 400 aid workers in Jordan, supporting families and communities with humanitarian programs and mental health care to ensure their needs are met.
More than half of Syria’s displaced population are children – thousands of whom have lived their whole lives with their country at war. Some, born as refugees, have never even seen the country their parents and grandparents called home.
To mark the seventh year of conflict in Syria, we are sharing the stories of seven refugees – seven-year-old children who have lived their whole lives in instability. Natalie Abu-Eisheh, Communications Officer for the Action Against Hunger Middle East Office, spoke with these children, who live in Jordan’s Azraq Camp, about their favorite toys.
