In pictures: Syria's displaced children
Kids at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan suffer deep pyschological scars
Young Syrians on the first day of school this week at Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan: ‘The behaviour of the students is very aggressive,’ their principal says. ‘They hit each other for no reason. They destroy their school materials.”Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
The Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees is a sprawling settlement in the Jordanian desert.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
The children of Zaatari feel anything but secure.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Girls go to school in the morning, boys in the afternoon.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Much of the camp sits in sweltering silence broken only by the call to prayer sung five times a day.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Parts of Zaatari hum with commerce and children at play.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
The sun is relentless, forcing refugees to stay inside as much as possible.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Safe zones run by organizations such as International Medical Corps (IMC) and Save the Children supplement the schools by providing soccer fields, computer labs, art classes and other after-school activities.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Children finish their school day.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
How do the girls deal with the boys, who seem so angry and prone to violence? They avoid them.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
The girls are likely to isolate themselves as much as possible.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
A small arcade offers video games for just over 50 cents an hour. There are nine computers, but everyone is playing the same game, Counterstrike, which pits terrorists against counterterrorists.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
The key to rescuing the children will be re-establishing the sense they belong to something, whether a school, a sports or a cogent social order in the camp.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Zaatari’s desert location is so inhospitable that aid workers were in disbelief when it was initially offered to them.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Portable classes are surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Unicef classrooms have only 14,000 spots for 30,000 children.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
The camp is highly unsafe for women. Aid workers suspect violence is widespread within the crowded tents.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Children take part in different activities at the camp.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Children take part in different activities at the camp.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Teachers ask the children to draw pictures of their life in Syria.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Teachers ask the children to draw pictures of their life in Syria.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Ottawa native Dominique Hyde, Unicef’s top representative in Jordan, says that, because of the poor fundraising response, “we’re able to do the basics, but that’s it.”Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Soccer games easily turn violent, with team-building and sportsmanship often losing out to pushing, shoving and flying fists.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Teachers ask the children to draw pictures of their life in Syria.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
“We try to get them involved in activities the best that we can,” says a program officer with the International Medical Corps.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
Aid workers face fierce competition for the hearts and minds of the young refugees.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail
The learning environment is far from ideal.Salah Malkawi/The Globe and Mail