By now, we have all become aware of the war in Syria and how it’s affecting so many families. But for most of us, the conflict in Syria is distant and abstract—something we barely think about every day.
7-year-old Bana Alabed’s Twitter account has changed that, BBC reports. Since September 2016, Bana and her family have been updating the world about their life in Aleppo, Syria, and their heartbreaking tweets have been making the horror in Aleppo more real for their 190,000 followers. Though the account is registered to Bana, the account is managed by her mother, Fatemah al-Abad, who studied journalism and politics.
Just last Sunday, the family tweeted a series of frightened updates that ended with a farewell message:
Thankfully, Bana and her family survived the attack, but they are far from safe. Go to the next page to read what has become of them.
Bana and her family survived the attack, but have now lost their home.
The al-Abed family has been continuously clamoring for help getting out of war-torn Aleppo. Much has been said about the refugee situation in the international community, with a lot of the dialogue revolving around their impact on their host countries’ economies. Bana’s Twitter account has helped us see what Syrian families go through every day, and it’s easy to see that if any of us were in the same situation, we would do anything it takes to bring our families to a peaceful place as well.
“This is no way to live—and too many are dying”
Though some Twitter users have called Bana’s Twitter account a hoax, labeling it as propaganda, it’s important to note that the al-Abed family are not the only ones living in terror. According to UNICEF, almost 500,000 children live in besieged areas in the country, cut off from aid and basic services.
“For millions of human beings in Syria, life has become an endless nightmare—in particular for the hundreds of thousands of children living under siege. Children are being killed and injured, too afraid to go to school or even play, surviving with little food and hardly any medicine,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director. “This is no way to live—and too many are dying.”