Poverty forces Syrian children to skip school, collect ordnance
For several child workers in the Idlib countryside, the detritus of war has become their livelihood.
In the town of Ma'arrat Misrin in the Idlib countryside, a group of children including Malik Junaid, 9, and Abdul Karim al-Hamoud, 12, have found a source of income in collecting, dismantling and sorting unexploded ordnance to be loaded into cargo trucks for eventual sale.
Violence has become their livelihood. Al-Hamoud and Junaid are forced to do the dangerous work to support their families. They don't get to go to school like other children, instead rushing outside as intensified fighting and air raids bring a bigger paycheck.
A team led by Abu Malik al-Idlibi, a pseudonym, dismantles the projectiles and gathers the explosive material for transportation to a scrap yard and sale.
The children face the risk of explosions and often put in long hours of the heavy work, depending on the availability of the materials. They are often dispatched to the scenes of bombing or clashes to search through the rubble for anything useful, including ammunition from the machine guns, finding moments here and there to play.
