Bombing in Syria

The indiscriminate bombing of the besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta and neighbouring Damascus in recent days has shocked the world.

Dozens of children have been killed and homes destroyed in relentless airstrikes, and there is no end in sight to the conflict.

(Left) Children play games at an Oxfam hygiene promotion campaign at Dahyet Qudsaya shelter. Photo: Oxfam (Right) A group of children wash their hands as part of an Oxfam hygiene promotion campaign at Dahyet Qudsaya shelter in rural Damascus. Photo: Oxfam

Despite the seemingly hopeless situation, Oxfam has been working hard to help parents and children who have managed to flee the violence.

One of those children was 11-year-old Kareem. His family fled their home in eastern Ghouta, before the recent outbreak of violence, and went to rural Damascus in search of safety. Now they live in a shelter with more than 1,000 people who have also been displaced.

Kareem misses being a little boy and the friends he had before the conflict – which is now in its seventh year – turned his life upside down.

“I used to go to school every day and meet my beloved friends,” he said. “I miss playing with my friends on the way back from school, I miss my home, my belongings and I miss watching cartoons after finishing my homework."

Oxfam has been working in Kareem’s shelter, helping to prevent disease by promoting good hygiene practices. We also distributed hygiene kits to all of the children living there.

We are on the ground in Syria providing clean, safe drinking water and hygiene kits to children like Kareem, while we continue to provide water and sanitation to Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan.

But the scale of this emergency is huge and we still urgently need your help.