“mom come on, do not be afraid; warplanes has carried out raids and gone”, with a strong voice and a smile that has beaten the world silence, Ahmed called out his mother who was shaking in the hallway of their house holding tight his younger brothers and repeating some prayers hoping they may push away warplanes raids that attacked Idlib city that day.
Although he is young, war has given him awareness and perceiving just like that of adults. The fear which is supposed to be controlling the case in that moments; Ahmed who aged eight replaced it with firmness and courage particularly after his father death year ago in regime prisons. He considered himself the man of the house so that you can see him running to stand at the door in order to listen to their neighbor’s radio device which usually becomes broadcasting with high volume once military fighters come close to the city. He hears what it is said on the radio then to go to his mother to comfort and inform her that “It is clear now.. warplanes have gone the city , Mom we can now sleep without any fears”.
Syria children are accustomed to the circumstances of war especially in liberated areas which are witnessing almost daily bombardment that is often accompanied with scenes of blood and carnage in addition to the rubble of destroyed houses. Ahmed stands for millions children who have become without fear or anxiety. In another words we can say (dangeler altust oldu) where children become the symbol of bravery and examples for the adult. They have made up of their circumstances a reality that fits their childhood sending out sparks of hope and flash of optimism.
Ahmed as usual stands with his friends of the neighborhood at the building entrance telling them with a laugh that narrates without words thousand stories: “I m not afraid of military fighters; on the contrary I gets happy, can you guess why?.. because Mom becomes afraid so she takes us to our aunt’s farm where there we play and have fun with my aunt’s kids besides my uncle brings us chips and candies”, his friend Khaled replied: “Daddy whenever warplanes attack Idlib take us to my grandpa farm.. it is so beautiful where there we gather with our cousins to play “front” game in which we put the big stones above each other in order to build a quarter head for us so to hit the pilot of warplanes once leaving the airport”.
They narrate their stories of displacement where the day is up before they are not finished telling the incidents which may be sometimes mixed with events from their imaginations to enrich the story and to show up heroes who do not fear death or warplanes at the end of the story.
Despite all the different kinds of pressures the children in Syria experience whether the psychological, social or even the financial ones, they have proved to the whole world that their generation will reconstruct Free Syria with their ideology, strength and courage as if Allah has granted them patience to face war and to create a childish reality fitting their innocence with what they have.
Ahmed held his mother’s hand to kiss it while looking at her in the eye and asking: “Mom, why regime killed daddy? What has he done? Is not true that one is prisoned for committing crimes? Have not you told me this?”, she paused for a moment then answered: “you father was a terrorist my dear, he went in the morning to bring the bread and did not come back.. his fault is that he was living in a country whose rulers’ hearts are without mercy or humanity”.
Byah Khaled
Translated by Sabah Najem Sam
#Syrian_Press_Center
Syria Children…Glimmer of Hope Despite War
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