By Hazzaa al-Adnan (Kfar Nabel, Syria) - In August, in the town of Kfar Nabel, around 50 people gathered one morning in front of Issam al-Dani’s corner store, which is licensed to sell government bread. The people massed there for almost two hours, dispersing only when the 48 year old informed the gathered crowd that the government bakery would not […]

Opposition-controlled areas in Aleppo experienced a state of relative stability in the past few months, as a number of displaced people returned and schools and shops reopened their doors. But the situation has become tense again in early October as clashes erupted between opposition fighters and regime forces. These clashes, and shelling, have forced some of the families that returned […]

By Vyan Mohammad (Qamishli, Syria) - In early June, 16-year-old-Ahmad was killed when his five-year-old brother fired their father’s nine millimetre Star handgun. Ahmad used to live with his family in the Muwathafin neighbourhood in the city of Qamishli in the northeast of Syria. With his father at work, his mother had asked him to keep an eye on his […]

By Hazaa al-Adnan (Kfar Nabl, Syria) - In June, a Syrian Army helicopter dropped an explosive barrel on a residential neighborhood in the Syrian city of Kfar Nabl. Four people died immediately in the resulting explosion, while seven were wounded. One of the wounded was eight-year-old Khaled al-Qasem. Khaled’s father, Mohammad, a 40-year-old construction worker, picked up his wounded son […]

By Abdallah Kleido (Kfar Nabl, Syria) – School openings this fall in this town of 30,000 people began with a deep divide between the parents: some in favour of re-opening the schools and others opposed to the idea. The hesitation about reopening schools comes from fear about the security situation and the fate of the kids, who attend school in […]

(Hamouriyeh, Eastern Ghouta) – Fear of another chemical attack is still present here in this town of approximately 25,000 people outside Damascus. More than 300 people were brought to the medical centre here when the Eastern Ghouta region was subjected to a chemical weapons attack on August 21. 27 peopled died in Hamouriyeh’s medical center, just a few of the […]

The school year started in Syria in mid-September. Several schools in opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo have been partially or completely destroyed. Charity organizations have started to rebuild some of the damaged schools, or tried to provide makeshift schools for Aleppo’s students. Photography by Zaid Mohammad

Families that were displaced from the Salaheddine neighbourhood in Aleppo took advantage of a lull in fighting in early September to visit their homes under the supervision of the Free Syrian Army. Those who returned had the chance to meet the neighbours they had not seen since they left their homes. They also collected whatever personal items and furniture they […]

Sleiman al-Hayess is a physiotherapist who defected from the Syrian Army and returned to his native city of Deir El-Zor a year ago. He has rehabilitated an abandoned physiotherapy centre in the Sheikh Yassine neighbourhood, where he has treated more than 70 patients, who are both civilians and opposition fighters, suffering from muscular atrophy due to war injuries. Photography by […]

By Abdul Karim Jaafar (Raqqa, Syria) - Ali spends most of his time in front of the TV. His mother asks him to go out, but he refuses. “None of the neighbourhood boys notice me,” the 15 year-old yells. Ali, who was born blind, cannot see the TV, but he takes comfort in its sound. The blind child considers it […]