Damascus: At four years old, Edmond Michael Abdul Noor can distinguish the sound of a bullet from that of a mortar hitting his Damascus neighbourhood.
A toddler when the conflict in Syria began, Abdul Noor has lived through war for most of his life, learning to correctly identify an outgoing shell from an incoming one before he’s even managed to master the alphabet.
“It’s the kind of knowledge I wish my son didn’t have,” said his mother, Manar Makhoul, 31. “There’s a whole generation of Syrian children who have been robbed of their childhood because of this crisis,” she said by telephone from Damascus.
Makhoul, like many Syrian mothers, stresses over the safety of her son and seven-year-old daughter. The family had a close call in November when a rocket crashed near her son’s school in Bab Touma, injuring five students from another school.
Abdul Noor and his classmates were rushed to the basement and were later given a three-week break. “When the time came for him to return to school, he clung to me, saying, ‘Mom, I’m scared. Bombs may fall.’”
She now limits their outings, and when they nag, she tells them: “There are loud noises outside. It’s too dangerous.
“I don’t like doing that,” added Makhoul. “The lives our children are living are too old for them.”
