I wouldn't have to think too far to determine who are the major victims of this seemingly endless and multifaceted war happening in Syria right now.
The war has claimed so many lives. It has seem so many families scattered and displaced. It has destroyed so many exotic UNESCO Heritage sites. It has done an incalculable damage to the country that is perhaps irreparable and unforgettable. But none of these will be a bigger victim than those little humans whose innocence it has plucked out prematurely. The ones whom it has denied a stage of life as sacred as childhood. They are the ones who will live the longest with the most unpleasant memory of bloodshed and tragedy in their heads. To these ones, all forms of normalcy of life has been deprived and all they have is a struggle to sustain life at whatever cost.
These are the major victims of the war in Syria. The Syrian children.
In a report released recently by UNICEF and Save the Children, the child labour that has resulted from economic desperation of displaced families is threatening to cause a lost generation of Syrian children.
According to this report, one of three street based Syrian children in Lebanon are girls. A bigger danger to the rest of the world lies in the fact that these children are more prone to coarse recruitment by terrorists and rebel groups. This report puts the ratio of children in the Kurdistan region who have been approached by armed groups at one out of three.
There is also the health risk that comes with matters like this. The dire lifestyle they are forced to adopt will only lead to health hazards and we sadly will not be able to rule out sexual abuse where these children are concerned. This raises the risk of STDs not only for these children but their immediate society. Three out of four of the children working in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan have reported health problems at work and those who do agriculture work in Mafraq and the Jordan Valley have 22% of them injured while working.
With this report, one does not need to be told what sort of danger this represents not just to Syria but to the region and even the world. These children are obviously forced out of schooling, baring any quick intervention they will have no choice than to live their lives on the backside of life. This is the backbone of the "lost generation" fear of the authors of this report.
Wishes are not horses but I beg to ride on this one for the sake of the good of these children and the world they will grow up and live in, that those who are involved in this war have a rethink and resolve matters.

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