Syria. Mobile swimming pools brighten days for children in camp

Spend a few carefree hours in the embrace of the summer heat. In the overcrowded camp Kaf Nasserh, North SyriaAn association called Smile Younited has installed mobile swimming pools for children displaced by the war. Mohammad Ezzedine, 38, said he was happy to see his five children so happy. He hopes the association will come back “every week” because “it’s hot and the children need to be entertained and have fun”. “They live under stress, confined in the camp,” he said. “Until the volunteers arrive, all we can do is put them in plastic boxes and fill them with water if we have it”.

According to the United Nations, more than five million people, most of them internally displaced persons who rely on aid from humanitarian organizations, live in overcrowded camps in the rebel-held areas of northern and northwestern Syria that have slipped out of Damascus’ control. As the conflict continues, a lack of international funding has severely affected the provision of basic services. Water is scarce and waste is piling up.

Heat, hunger, thirst

Residents of the Kafr Naseh refugee camp in the Aleppo region say they have not received free clean water for a year and a half. “Old people and young people want water because it is a lifeline (…). The camp is thirsty,” said Habiba Hamdouch, 65, who has lived in Kafr Naseh for six years.

The children at the camp “had never seen a swimming pool or even knew how to swim. They grew up in thirst and hungertents, dirt and sun,” she added. But today, they can “enjoy the pool, which is a source of joy and relaxation on a hot day,” she said, watching her 15 grandchildren splash around. Many of them were small when his family was displaced from neighboring Idlib province. They “grew up in the camp, thirsty and hungry, living in tents under the sun,” she said.

Children ‘need leisure’

In 2011, Bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests, Syrian Civil War More than half a million people died and it also triggered the world’s worst displacement crisis, with 13.8 million people still displaced internally and externally, according to the United Nations.

Once out of the water, the children sat at plastic tables and ate juice and fruit provided by the charity. “The children not only need help, but also leisure time,” stressed Ayman Abou Taym, the 30-year-old leader of the volunteer team.