DUBAI: Humanitarian group Save the Children has released a harrowing series of animations showing how the war in Syria has taken its toll on children.
The animated images were created by photographer Nick Ballon and artist Alma Haser and are overlain with testimony by Syrian children who fled the war and now live near the Syria-Turkey border, according to a release from Save the Children.
“I hate it when I am alone,” nine-year-old Hassan, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, says in in one of the videos.
According to the release, Hassan saw his father shot dead and has since become withdrawn.
“When I get afraid my body starts shaking,” Hassan says in the recording, “I dream of a big bird, bigger than me, that I can ride it and fly away.”
“At my aunt’s house my cousins all died,” nine-year-old Nesreen says. “I hope my voice will be heard by everyone. ... We don’t want anything else, just help for Syria.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations’ child relief agency said Monday that at least 652 children were killed in Syria in 2016, making it the worst year yet for the country’s rising generation.