At the age of just 2, Melisya Joudeh lost not just her mother and her father in an airstrike but also her brother, uncles, five cousins, her grandmother and two aunts.
“She is now the only surviving member of our family, and I am her only guardian,” says her aunt, Yasmin Joudeh. Shrapnel hit Melisya’s spine and she can no longer walk.
Haya al-Barai, 15, also lost both parents. She, too, is paraplegic, and was initially thought dead. “I asked why I was in a shroud,” she says.