麻豆社

Five years ago, protests in Syria as part of the Arab Spring, were put down with violence by the Syrian Government. The mass protests quickly became an armed rebellion, with increasing sectarian involvement. As the conflict escalated, other countries became involved with Russia commencing air strikes in September 2015, and areas of the country becoming strongholds of so-called Islamic State militants.

The Syrian conflict has changed people's lives irrevocably and, in this programme, we allow people to reflect on the situation in which they find themselves.

We hear from Sam, who has stayed in his home city of Deraa and believes the government is doing its best to support the Syrian people. He studies English Literature, even though many of his teachers, and his fellow students, have left the country. He finds solace in his books, reading Hamlet and writing poetry. At night, he often listens to music to drown out the sounds of warfare around him.

Alia lives in a rural area which is in the hands of rebel forces. Her son joined up to fight the regime, but was killed. His body was brought back to the village. "Even though he had died twelve hours earlier, he was still bleeding," she says, "that is how I know he was a martyr."

Khadija Kamara came to Britain to escape civil war in Sierra Leone. Her son Ibrahim was just a week old when she had to flee from her village as the bullets flew around her. In 2014, without her knowledge, he travelled to Syria and joined an Islamic terrorist group. A few months later he became the first British jihadi to be killed in Syria when a US drone strike targeted the house where he was staying.

(Photo: Fighters from the Free Syrian Army sit in front of detroyed buildings as they prepare to break the fast during Ramadan, 2016. Credit: Sameer al-Doumy/AFP)