Help us restore hope this Christmas

Eight-year-old Sondos is just one of thousands of innocent children in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen who have been severely injured and traumatized by wars they cannot understand.

Help us restore hope this Christmas.

Caught in a bombing

In 2016, Sondos and her family were living in a besieged area of the Damascus suburbs. The little girl was just on her way to school when the area was bombed. Her mother, sister, and grandfather were badly injured, and Sondos’ leg was fractured by shrapnel from the blast.

The family fled to Lebanon to escape the conflict, but Sondos is still deeply traumatized by what she went through.

The little girl holds her teddy bear tightly in her arms as she remembers what life was like in Syria:

"When there were planes in the sky, we didn't go to school. We were afraid and stayed at home…The school just opposite mine was bombed."

"Even though I miss my country very much, here at least there are no planes, and I'm not frightened of going to school."

Recovering from the trauma

_{© Philippe de Poulpiquet/HI}

Sondos and her three sisters receive regular psychological support from Humanity & Inclusion’s team in Lebanon.

Christelle, our psychologist, explains, "They have a lot of nightmares and suffer from bedwetting. We are helping them to recover through a range of fun activities designed for children."

Today the girls are playing with modeling clay. "Although it looks like they're just playing, it's actually much more than that," says Christelle. "It allows the girls to symbolically rebuild everything they have lost and to talk to us about what has happened to them."