Meet Fatima

Series: The Syrian children who keep me going — a blog by Ahmad Baroudi, Save the Children.

Among many children, one has a special place in my heart. Her name is Fatima*, a three year old girl. Her attitude wasn’t very welcoming in the beginning, she kept hiding behind her mother peeking through and hiding again, until we started talking about her and she realised she was the center of attention and she enjoyed being so. She threw herself in her mother’s lap and gave a smile from the heart, her face was covered with charcoal as her family had taken shelter in an empty coal storehouse after — miraculously — surviving certain death as their house was bombed while they were inside it.

They literally had nothing. In her very short life, she experienced pain, fear, hunger, cold and exhaustion, yet she knew she was loved, and that was what brought this satisfaction in her smile. When she saw her photo she asked me to take more, but this time she didn’t smile at all, staring into the void, reflecting each and every Syrian child’s story without saying a word.

*Name changed to protect identity.

Original story published by Save the Children International: