Page 257 - A Helping Hand for Refugees

have disfigured his face and some remain embedded in his back. He
says that among his friends there are some who do not want to play
with him because they are scared of the shrapnel wound on his face.
Contrary to Arthur, Safi wants to be a doctor. He explains that one day
he would like to be able to "help injured children and adults and to
save their lives."

This is an extract from the real life story of a Syrian child living
in Latakia. Dozens of stories of Syrian children like Safi have been pub-

lished on the Turkish website of the UN Children's Emergency Fund
54
(UNICEF). In these stories, there are heart-wrenching details about
the oppression, exile or massacres these children have experienced.

The number of children orphaned as a result of the civil war in
Syria is increasing day by day; the war leaves a very devastating impres-
sion on children. According to the last report of United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF, the number of chil-
dren negatively affected by the wars in Iraq and Syria has reached 14
million. The number of children remaining in Syria who continue to
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suffer and need help is 5.6 million; 323,000 of them under the age of

five.
More than one million Syrian refugees who escaped from their
country consist of children under the age of 11. Antonio Guterres, the
high commissioner of UNHCR, recently expressed how serious this

figure is in a report in which he claimed that as many Syrian children
have been uprooted from their homes or families as the number of chil-
dren who live in Wales, or in Boston and Los Angeles combined. "Can
you imagine Wales without children? Can you imagine Boston and Los Angeles
without children?," said Gueterres.
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In Syria, 11,525 children under the age of 18 remain in custody.
According to the Centre for Documentation of Violations in Syria, 98,823
children have been orphaned as a result of the ongoing conflict. 57
According to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR),

Adnan Oktar (Harun Yahya) 255