Shocked boy is rescued after an air strike

Video just released by the Aleppo Media Center, an activist opposition group, shows a small boy being rescued.

• He was rescued from the aftermath of an airstrike in Aleppo which caused 3 deaths and 12 injuries.
• The boy is five-year-old Omran Daqneesh.
• He was carried out of a building an put in an ambulance, covered in blood and dust.
• He was then treated for head injuries at a local hospital.

• Aleppo is a key battleground between President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and rebel fighters.
• Since the Syrian conflict began there have been over 250,000 deaths and millions have been forced to flee.

The situation in Syria for children

The refugee crisis is quickly escalating according to a new report by UNICEF:

• The number of refugee children went from about 520,000 in 2013 to 2.4 million in 2016.
• The 7 million kids still in Syria are living in poverty.
• In 2015, 400 children were killed.
• Children as young as seven are being recruited to fight.
• There are 2.8 million children in Syria who aren’t in school.

A new GLOBALO film on Syria from the children’s perspective

• “Watani – My Homeland” is directed by GLOBALO Co-Founder Marcel Mettelsiefen and co-produced by GLOBALO News Publishing and GLOBALO founder Dr Hubertus Hoffmann.
• The film tells the story of the war alongside the story of one Syrian family with four children. The film shows the rare, emotional side of the conflict and its effect on the family’s fate. 
• The director met the family and began filming their journey in 2013 as Aleppo was falling apart.
• He followed them for 3 years until they eventually found refuge in Germany. The director says in a Newsweek interview that “If they had had the choice, they would never have left.” But, the children’s father, who was fighting for the revolution, was captured by ISIS, and their mother decided it was safer to go. They family now lives in Goslar, Germany, and the children are in school and have learned to speak German.
• Marcel Mettelsiefen, previously directed “Children on the Frontline” and aimed to add a new dimension to this five year war–the children’s perspective. The previous film won a total of 18 international awards, including an EMMY and two BAFTAs.
• He said in a Frontline interview that he hopes people come away from the film “moved by this family’s capacity for resilience and renewal. These children and their mother have shown me that human beings are very flexible to adapt to any kind of situation, even some of the most horrific ones you can imagine.”

Reviews:

• “’Children of Syria’ runs just under an hour, and yet it tells the story of a lifetime, with more nuance and human detail than films twice as long. It’s hard to put into words just how provocative and profound this film is. …It is, quite simply, unforgettable. “Children of Syria” is one of the most remarkable films about children and war ever made.” – TV Worth Watching
• You haven’t understood the Syrian refugee crisis until you’ve seen this beautiful, textured story about home, escape, identity and anguish. – The Globe and Mail

CNN Interview

Mettelsiefen was interviewed on CNN by Christiane Amanpour, which you can watch below.

“It is extraordinary,” Amanpour says reacting to the trailer, “just the sight of what we just showed. The littlest kid, acting out how she thought she died when she felt a shell.”

The film has been featured on Frontline in the US, in the UK on Channel 4, and in Germany on ZDF.

You can watch the trailer below:

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