Young Syrians dream of home

When nine-year old Ilaf Hassun drew a picture of her home she scrawled a simple house, trees and clouds with smiling faces. Then in thick red pen, she added the figure of a woman clutching her dead child walking towards a cemetery.

Hassun and her family are living with nearly 3,000 other people - 1,000 of them under 12 years old - in Yayladagi Refugee Camp, a former tobacco factory converted by the government just across the border from Syria in eastern Turkey. Her father works illegally in Turkey and rarely visits.

She plays with the other children, but her artwork points to the mental scars borne by her and many of the 2.3 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey, more than half of them children.

The Turkish government, aided by the United Nations and non-governmental organisations, has set up 27 "Kid-Friendly Fields" across the country, used by an estimated 100,000 children between the ages of four and 18 who receive support and education, and a chance to be children.

The centres are the latest effort by authorities to ramp up their humanitarian response and provide long-term care for refugee communities unlikely to be able to return for years.

From the age of 9, the Arabic-speaking children are taught Turkish to help them integrate.

"When they arrive in a different country they have difficulties living in a different culture, in a world speaking a different language," said Meryem Dolgun, a youth worker. "They have self-confidence problems, fear. Some think they are worthless."

The need to provide schooling and a future for Syrian children in Turkey - and prevent what Dolgun called a "lost generation" - has become a high priority.

The work has taken on greater political significance since Turkey agreed last year to try to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, in return for 3 billion euros ($3.26 billion) in European Union aid and moves towards visa-free travel for Turks.

Turkish officials say they have spent more than $8 billion responding to the Syrian crisis. But if migrant numbers are to drop, Turkey's refugee response needs to be scaled up.

With just 330,000 places available in camps, and many refugees preferring to take their chances begging or working illegally in Turkey's major cities, only a fraction of children are receiving help. Yet the system is already creaking.

In November, Turkey's disaster management agency urged displaced Syrians to stay in camps in their own country, rather than crossing to Turkey.