Ghouta's Youth Become War Reporters to Shine a Light on Suffering Civilians

The following is a series of testimonies from Eastern Ghouta. It comes following two testimonies from Eastern Ghouta (in the suburbs of Damascus) by a nurse and a dentist, published on February 20 and March 4, 2018, respectively, and published by the Act For Ghouta collective. Global Voices has also published testimonies from Damascus, which you can read here.

Controlled by anti-regime rebels, Eastern Ghouta has been under siege by the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad and its allies since the end of 2013. But in recent weeks, the violence intensified drastically. In the two weeks between the evening of February 18 to the evening of March 3, the medical data by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reveals 4,829 wounded and 1,005 dead or 344 wounded and 71 dead per day. Civilian infrastructure has also been severely damaged, with more than 25 hospitals and health centers hit, some more than once in four days.

Two sisters from Eastern Ghouta, 12-year-old Noor and 8-year-old Alaa, have taken to Twitter in a joint account to speak for themselves about the ongoing siege.

The girls and their mother, Shams Al-Khateeb, saw tens of orphan and homeless children left without care after losing their parents. Al-Khateeb created the Twitter account for her daughters hoping that people would see what was taking place in Ghouta and demand action.

Global Voices (GV) got in touch with young Noor, who talked about why she wanted to become a journalist:

I want to be a journalist to convey the innocents’ suffering or study chemistry to make medicine to the people.

Despite the siege, Noor used to go to school and was one of the school's most brilliant fifth-grade students. But recently her school was bombed by jets allegedly launched by the Assad regime and the ongoing military campaign prevented her from attending other schools.

Now, Noor and her family spend most of the time at home.

They survived an air strike that targeted their neighbours in which Alaa suffered relatively mild injuries.

Sometimes, the sisters walk the streets or visit shelters to film and talk about the deepening humanitarian crisis. Speaking to GV their mother Al-Khateeb said they have become desperate:

Most of the time the girls stay close to me and hug me and start crying when an air strike hit nearby. We don't have much food, only some herbs like parsley, nor water to drink or shower.

The aftermath of the strike on February 22, 2018, was filmed and posted on Twitter. Warning: the video is graphic.