Azaz, Syria – Aya is twelve years old and has never known peace.

Her earliest memories are harrowing: the sight and sound of bombs, the absence of a safe place to play, and the constant disruptions to her schooling.

In 2023, her father decided it was time to flee. “I was very scared when we had to leave our home and everything we owned,” Aya recalls, remembering the time her family was forced to move into a camp for internally displaced people.

Now, as Syria embarks on a new chapter, Aya has finally been given her first real chance to live a childhood unlike any she has known.

But in a country wrecked by 14 years of conflict, where education and public services have been brought to near ruin, where does one begin to lay the foundations for the next generation to thrive?