KAFR NASEH: In a run-down north Syria camp, children displaced by the country’s 13-year war played and splashed in volunteer-run mobile swimming pools that provided much-needed relief from the sweltering summer heat.

Volunteers from the Smile Younited charity barely had any time to finish setting up the three pools in a busy square surrounded by tents before children of all ages jumped in, dancing along to songs blasted on loudspeakers.

The pools at Kafr Naseh camp, in the Aleppo countryside, provided rare entertainment to young boys and girls whose lives have been scarred by war and poverty. Mohammad Ezzedine, 38, said he was thrilled to see his five children so happy.

“I hope they will come back every week... because it’s hot and the kids need to distract themselves and have fun” because “they live under pressure inside a confined camp,” he said.

The children “had never been to a pool before. The most we could do was put them in a plastic tub and fill it with water” when it is available to cool down in the summer, Ezzedine added. More than five million people, most of them displaced, live in areas outside government control in Syria’s north and northwest, the UN says, and many rely on aid to survive.

As the conflict drags on, a lack of international funding has severely undercut the provision of basic services including water, waste disposal and sanitation in displacement camps outside government control in Syria’s north and northwest.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2024