Turkish agency opens kindergarten for orphans in Syria

By Ridvan Korkulutas

KILIS, Turkey (AA) - Turkey's IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation has opened a kindergarten for orphans in Syria’s northern city of Azaz, it said on Saturday.

The kindergarten will educate 90 children between the ages of 3 and 5 in Bab al-Salam refugee camp, the foundation said in a statement.

Presents and stationery were distributed to children who attended the opening ceremony of the school.

Five female teachers will work at the kindergarten.

Ghassan Kenco, IHH Orphan Unit Supervisor in Syria, said 125 families in the camps have children who have been orphaned in the war.

Their education expenses and basic needs are being covered by the foundation, he said.

“With this kindergarten, these children will have fun and learn at the same time so they can forget, to some extent, the bad memories of the war," he said.

Nearly, 9,500 people live in the Bab al-Salam camp.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating civil war that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and more than 10 million displaced, according to the UN.