Syria, Aleppo. 2017. Beneficiaries: 47.
East Aleppo, besieged for four years, the target of daily bombings and raids, was the symbolic city of the terrible war in Syria. 300,000 displaced, 40,000 dead, mostly women and children. Asmar, 28, with the financial support of the Afkar Foundation, took care of 47 abandoned children, hosting them in a bomb-proof underground shelter: the "Moumayazoun" (Exceptional Children). In the last months of the siege, however, he could no longer find food and medicines for them and the staff. Moumayazoun's video appeal spread all over the world and finally children and staff were evacuated to Turkey.
NOVE, which had been following their story for weeks, donated a bus which was needed to move the children quickly in case of danger. NOVE continued to monitor the situation until UNICEF intervened, opening a 'child protection centre' within Moumayazoun, which later came to receive orphans and unaccompanied minors from the Al-Ragga areas.