Tuesday 28 July 2015

Photos: Activists Build an Underground Playground so Syrian Children Can Escape the Brutality of War

Pictured playing on swings, slides and a merry-go-round, these children can be seen enjoying themselves in the same way as any others their age.
Except these photos were not taken of an outdoor playground in the middle of a park.

This is a generation of youngsters growing up amidst an onslaught of shelling in war-torn Syria – and rather than be outside, the children are in fact underground in a subterranean play centre.

It has been built by activists as a way for the youth of Damascus to escape the violence of the country’s bloody civil war.

Constructed in Ghouta, in the eastern part of Syria’s capital, it features an extensive range of play equipment from springers to slides, climbing apparatus to play houses and even a merry-go-round and a sandpit.

The playground also has plants and flowers to give youngsters and their parents the feeling that they are above ground.

Its opening comes as six more people were killed and dozens injured when an airstrike hit the city of Douma in the opposition-held Eastern Ghouta region on Monday.
Flames engulfed a building and several cars when Syrian warplanes struck, and a number of people are understood to have suffered burns.
Since 2013, regime forces have systematically bombarded Eastern Ghouta.
More than 220,000 people have now died in the Syrian conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. 

In February, 66 people were killed as Syria's regime pounded the rebel stronghold of Douma with air strikes after a barrage of opposition fire hit Damascus.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 children were among those killed. 
And two years ago young children and adults suffered horrific burns after being caked in a 'napalm-like' substance when a bomb was dropped on a school playground near the country's capital.
Witnesses said at the time that a fighter jet had repeatedly flown overhead, as if searching for a target, before dropping the bomb.
More than ten pupils were killed and many more left seriously injured after the attack reduced the school playground to rubble.
Those who survived were seen shaking uncontrollably, having suffered burns to more than 50 per cent of their bodies. 
Meanwhile, David Cameron also said on Monday that he was ready to order air strikes on Islamist militant targets in Libya and Syria to prevent attacks on the streets of Britain as he stepped up his rhetoric against Islamic State insurgents.
The Prime Minister said: 'If there is a threat to Britain or to our people on our streets ... we are able to stop it by taking immediate action against that threat.
'As prime minister, I would always want to try and take that action, and that's the case whether that problem is emanating from Libya or Syria or anywhere else.'
It emerged earlier this month that Britain is already taking part in US-led air strikes on Islamic State positions in Iraq and Mr Cameron is keen to get parliamentary backing later this year to extend that aerial campaign to Syria.
















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