Baladi - Coverage
The U.N. International Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued a blank statement in February 2018 as a response to reports of mass casualties among children in Eastern Ghouta and Damascus. The statement was preceded with the message, "No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones."
In the midst of the violence and destruction, a number of Syrian children use social media to tell the tales of war to the outside world and provide a window into life and death in Syria.
Muhammed Najem, 15, uses his mobile phone to capture videos and images of Eastern Ghouta, his hometown.
His biggest hope is to be able to sit in a classroom one day and live a peaceful life.
Muhammed Najem amid the rubble of his school in Eastern Ghouta, Feb. 13, 2018.
"I want to travel, continue my study, and work on my English and my journalism skills," Najem told VOA.
When the Syrian government escalated its airstrikes as it pushed into Eastern Ghouta, Najem captured moments of the suffering as the city was besieged and the regime forces bombarded it with nonstop airstrikes.
"He stopped going to school after it was destroyed in an airstrike," Najem's sister told VOA, "He used English words he learned when he was in school to deliver his message," she added.
Lost of father
Najem lost his father during a shelling in Eastern Ghouta. The war also claimed the life of his best friend, who was killed in an airstrike.
His experiences and losses forced him to act more like an adult, undertaking responsibilities children in his age normally don't even have to think about.
He began cutting and collecting wood for heat and bringing water from nearby wells to his family.
He also used his social media skills to tweet about everyday life.
"The [humanitarian] and [medical] situation in Eastern Ghouta is difficult to describe with words. What is happening now is genocide," Najem said in one a Twitter video earlier this year.
Leaving Ghouta
Najem was evacuated from Eastern Ghouta just days before the regime's chemical attack that killed and injured scores of civilians in the area.
Najem still tweets from his refugee camp, and he has a message for the outside world:
"My message to the world is that our right as children is to live in peace and be able to go to school and play like any other child in this world."
Reporting by Nisan Ahmado for VOA News