1. DAILYMIRROR THURSDAY 04.02.201612 DM1ST
riskingtheirlivescrossingtheAegean
ortheBalkansnowisthetimetotake
a new approach to the disaster.
“Today’s pledge of a total of
£2.3billion sets the standard for the
international community – more
moneyisneededandit’sneedednow.”
British officials hope cash pledged
will help refugees find jobs and boost
the education of 700,000 children.
Mr Cameron said: “Using fund-
raising to build stability, create jobs
and provide education can have a
transformational effect and create a
future model for relief.”
Syria peace talks in Geneva were■■
putonholduntilFebruary25yesterday
to get help from the US and Russia,
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said.
million people have fled Bashar
al-Assad’s brutal regime and
bloodthirsty IS extremists.
Many have made the
perilous journey across the
Mediterraneaninthehope
of reaching Europe. Mr
Cameron said: “With
hundredsofthousands
inside syrian refugee camps as UK promises £1.2bn more aid
to help them to
dream again.
“Every day we
wish for an end to
thiswar,thechance
to return home.”
Adarbreaksdownas
herelaysastorytoldtohim
by a cousin who stayed behind and is now
living under Islamic State’s brutal rule.
He said: “He told me we can never go
back. Those madmen kill anyone who
doesn’t follow them. In our town they cut
the heads off dissenters and impale them
on sticks on the roundabouts.
“Howcanwetakeourchildren
back to this horror?”
Adar, 48, is hoping his words
will be heard by world leaders
who could hold the key to
unlocking the future of his six
childrenandmillionsofothers.
As the conflict’s fifth
­anniversary approaches,
PrimeMinisterDavidCameron
willtodayhostadelegationofglobalchiefs
to raise billions of pounds in new funding
for the people whose lives have been torn
apart by the bloody civil war.
Cash is needed to safeguard education
programmes for youngsters who are out
of school and without hope after their
childhoods were destroyed.
ForaslongasAmiraKikacanremember,
her sons Elias and Firas dreamed of being
inthearmy.HereldestdaughterAyaalways
spoke of becoming a doctor, while her
youngest,Maya,readmorebooksthanshe
couldborrowfromtheschoollibrary.That
exclusiveby russell myers inErbil,NorthernIraq
Pictures:ROWAN GRIFFITHS
12mpeople displaced since
the conflict began –
around half the Syrian
population
AMID the displaced and desperate
victims of the brutal Syrian war,
millions of children are in danger of
becoming a lost generation.
Their dreams of becoming doctors and
engineers have crumbled like the cities
they left behind.
When Adar Kejo and his family fled
Raqqa, the now de facto capital of Islamic
State, they ran for the chance of a future.
But as he sits sipping tea inside one of
thousands of tents at the
Darashakran refugee camp
in Erbil, northern Iraq, he
tells of harbouring renewed
fears for his children.
Notthefearofwhenarmed
thugs loyal to Syrian dictator
Bashar al-Assad held a knife
to his son’s throat, nor from
when rockets destroyed their
home,butthefearofthemnever
being able to achieve the dreams and
ambitions they once had.
He said: “The only hope for us here is to
look forward to the next generation.
“If there is an end in sight then it will be
the children who will lift us out of this
situation. They are the future, each and
every one of them.
“I’m an old, illiterate man and if I have
to end my days living like this, so be it. But
the children had dreams they still talk of.
“Now those dreams have been replaced
by nightmares of this war. Surely we have
livesin
limbo
Amira Kika’s
four children.
Inset, mum
By BEN GLAZE PoliticalCorrespondent
Britain will pump £1.2billion more
into efforts to help Syrian refugees as
it“setsthestandard”forinternational
efforts, David Cameron said.
ThePMannouncedtheaidasworld
leaders gathered in London for a
conference today to raise funds for
victims of the civil war.
He hopes the move will encourage
otherstochipinafterafundraising
drivelastyearaimedfor£4.8billion
but raised only half that sum.
The £1.2billion, spread over
four years, is on top of £1.1billion
already pledged by the
InternationalDevelop-
ment Department.
More than four
PM’spledging
extrafunding
forthevictims
MONEY VOW
David Cameron
DM1ST
THURSDAY 04.02.2016 DAILYMIRROR 13mirror.co.uk
inside syrian refugee camps as UK promises £1.2bn more aid
Wargivesourchildrennightmares...
weneedtohelpthemdream.Only
theycanliftusoutofthissituationwanted the best for their children. Now
allwehaveleftispicturesandmemories,
“I do not want the next 20 years of
­memoriestobestuckherewithnohope.
“Theleadersoftheworldmuststretch
out their hands to help us up. It is the
only way we will survive.”
Nearly three million Syrian children
still have no access to education – the
equivalent of the combined child
­populations of Greater London,
Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds.
UK International Development
­Secretary Justine Greening said the
conference of leaders from the UK,
Germany, Kuwait, Norway, and the
United Nations would seize the
chance to make
a difference.
The UK has
been at the
forefront of
humanitarian
efforts for Syria
with more than
£1.1billion in aid.
DavidCameronis
now pledging a further £1.2billion. Ms
Greening said: “The Syria conference
will be an historic moment for world
leaderstomakearealandlastingdiffer-
ence to the lives of millions of children
affected by the Syria crisis.
“No child should miss out on an
education because of conflict.
“These are the children who can one
day rebuild Syria if the world is willing
to invest in them now.”
russell.myers@mirror.co.uk
and would die if we didn’t follow them
so we had no option but to leave.
“When we were forced to run we just
wanted safety but now we’re stuck here,
what life is this for the children?
“We used to have holidays, the
­childrenwerelookingforwardtoschool,
we were like any other family who only
to the war in sight, her children face the
prospectofreachingadulthoodwithout
ever enjoying another day at school.
She said: “Education is the only hope
theyhaveandwithoutitwhatisthere?”
Mirko and Suzan Zorav were gripped
with terror when IS thugs slaughtered
innocent families during the bloody
Siege of Kobani in 2014.
As crazed jihadists burst into the city
declaring rule under their warped
version of Islam, the family grabbed a
few meagre belongings and fled in the
middle of the night.
Holding a photo album of pictures
from happier times, including his
wedding day, dad-of-three Mirko said:
“Daesh [Islamic State] are beyond evil.
They kidnapped our families and
destroyed our homes without mercy.
“They said we were not real Muslims
bed as bullets hit our home
and they’ve seen people die
from ­chemical attacks – all
things that would test the
strongest minds. There is
nothing left for them to fear
apart from being stuck
without hope of a future.
“They ask all the time when they
will go home and go to school and play
withtheirfriendsagain,butIdon’thave
the answers. I just want them to have a
future...onewheretheyhavetheoppor-
tunity to rebuild their lives.”
Amira,35,andherfourchildren,aged
between15andsix,arrivedatKawergosk
refugee camp in Erbil 14 months ago.
Exhausted and shell-shocked, they
were at least relieved to be alive, still
clingingtothehopetheywouldoneday
beabletoreturnhome.Butwithnoend
was before Amira was
forced to feed them
boiled wood and parsley
just to keep them alive as
Assad’s armed thugs
besiegedtheirhomeinthe
Syrian capital Damascus.
They stayed for seven
months, almost starving to
death, before warring ­government and
IS gangs advanced on the city.
After handing over her last few
hundred pounds to ruthless human
traffickers, they fled the city a day after
asuicidebomberslaughtereddozensof
people within100 yards of their home.
Brushing Maya’s hair, she said: “The
children have seen ­
unimaginable
horrors. They’ve witnessed their cousin
die in front of them when a rocket hit
ourstreet,they’vehadtohideunderthe
Charity’scashpleatohelpkidslearnTHOUSANDS of Syrian children
are being given the opportunity to
learn and play again after fleeing
the bloody civil war.
Save the Children runs “child
friendly spaces” in refugee camps
such as Darashakran in Iraq and
across the region.
But with funding drying up,
nearly three million children who
are out of school face a future
without access to education.
Fay Hoyland, from Save the
Children, said: “The war in Syria is
denying children one of their most
important basic human rights –
education. Save the Children is
providing top-up classes, but we
are also running out of funding, so
our children’s centres are
threatened with closure.
“We’re calling on the
international community to
prioritise education to make sure
that the millions of Syrian children
who aren’t receiving a quality
education, or worse, have never
been to school, do have a future.
“Our call is simple – increase
funding so that the children of
Syria can access education and
protect students, teachers and
schools from attack.”
To help save Syria’s children and■■
donate to Save the Children’s Syria
Crisis Appeal, visit
savethechildren.org.uk or
call 0800 8148 148 to donate
by phone.PLAYTIME Kids at charity centre in Darashakran, Iraq
2.8mSyrian refugee children not
in school – the combined
child populations of Greater
London, Manchester,
Liverpool and Leeds
12,517children killed during
the war up to October
2015. The bloodiest year
was 2014 with a total of
76,021 deaths
£6bnAmount of funding
required to deal with
the Syrian humanitarian
crisis in 2016
fears Adar Kejo
with wife Esmer and
five of their children
report Mirror’s
Russell in Erbil
Memories Wedding snap of Mirko and
Suzan Zorav from family’s photo album