holly pickett
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Seeking safety
The number of Syrians fleeing violence and shelling has sharply increased over the winter months. Tent camps for the internally displaced just inside the Syrian border are home to tens of thousands, and though there are no more tents, new people arrive everyday. An estimated 4 million Syrians are displaced inside the country. Meanwhile, one million Syrians are registered as refugees in neighboring countries.
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A young refugee walks on a path between rows of tents in Azaz IDP Camp.
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Fatma, right, pours tea for her mother and a family friend. Fatma fled Aleppo eight months ago with her three children, her siblings, and her mother. They can hear the fighter jets in the sky, and sometimes hear and feel the shelling of nearby towns.
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Six-year-old Duaa, left, arrived at the Azaz IDP camp with her family just five days ago. They live close to the Aleppo airport, which was being heavily shelled. They don't have a tent yet, so they are staying with relatives.
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Manal Abd Al-Karim tries to soothe her crying daughter inside their tent at Bab al-Hawa Camp, Syria.
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Boys take an ax to a wooden pallet, chopping it into pieces for firewood. After the freezing deaths of a couple of children in the camp, each tent received a small wood stove for heating.
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Fatma Um Mahmoud and her family of 15 had just arrived in the camp and were still in shock after what is widely believed to be a ballistic missile, fired from Damascus, landed near their home in Aleppo the day before. "They were still pulling corpses from the houses when we left," said Um Mahmoud.
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Riyadh Zeydu cuts 6-year-old Romy's hair in a make-shift barbershop.
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Seventh-grade girls attend Arabic class in Azaz Camp school. 800 children attend class for two hours per day. It is a welcome respite and normalizing piece of the children's daily routine. "We try everything to make them happy," said Abdul Razaq, a teacher.
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Adel Talib, 13, watches a family friend cut the roots of an olive tree out of the ground, which they will use as heating fuel, just outside Azaz IDP Camp. Adel and his family are still living in Azaz town, because they don't feel like they have anyplace else to go. According to camp administrators, as many as 70% of Azaz residents have fled the heavily-shelled town.
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Men and boys in line for drinking water at dusk. Water arrives from Azaz every day or two.
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Illuminated by a candle, Yussef, 6, center, and his 10-year-old sister Rabiya in their family's tent, Azaz IDP camp, Syria. There are occasional bursts of electricity in the camp, maybe an hour or two per day, or none at all.
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A woman stands in the tent she shares with 15 family members in Bab al-Hawa IDP camp, Syria.
