Feature: Homeless children enjoy motherly care in war-torn Syria

Amid Syria's crushing war, hope still exists amongst hopeless children who are cared for and raised by women not necessarily their biological mothers.

However, the women become more than a mother to them, whilst the women are overwhelmed with more children than imaginable.

At the SOS Children's Village for foster care near Damascus, tens of homeless children, who lost their parents either to the war or whose parents got divorced or were socially sidelined, are being raised by women they love and call mother.

Hamidah, a 13-year-old girl from the northern city of Aleppo, said she loves her foster mother who is raising her at the village even more than her real parents, who got divorced and left her in foster care.

"When I grow up, I will move to another house for adults, but I don't want to leave my mother because I am happy here. I love my foster mother more than my real one because she sincerely cares for me, and never made me feel like an orphan. I am really happy she is my mother."

Hamidah said she wants to become a lawyer in the future to defend the voiceless and the unfortunate.

Luma Muhib, Hamidah's mother, who is also a mother to nine other children in a housing unit at the SOS village, said she never married, adding that she couldn't care less.

"My relationship with these children has filled my life with joy and compensated me for the marital life which I couldn't have. Women usually get marry in order to have a family and children, but I already have children here, thank God," Muhib said.

Muhib has been a foster mother for orphaned and homeless children for 10 years now.

She said she will continue to care for her nine children at the SOS village for as long as it takes.

She added that she has more children now than she could have ever possibly imagined.

Muhib typically wakes up her nine children, changes their clothes, washes them and tutors them everyday.

The housing unit Muhib is staying at in the village is filled with children either jumping around or still crawling.

However, she still finds the time to cook for them and even bakes them cakes and sweets.

She said that Hamidah is more than a foster child to her, "she is like a friend to me."

As in any normal house, the elder sister takes care of her younger siblings, and Hamidah helps Muhib in caring for her younger brothers and sisters.

Both have bonded closely together, even though they are not blood-relatives.

"I rely on Hamidah's help in raising the children as she helps me cook and bathe them."

"A mother is the one who raises and cares for her children, not just the one who gives birth to them," Muhib said.

Muhib said she doesn't fear her little children would leave her when they grow up, as "a mother is never forgotten."

Meanwhile, in another village housing unit, Sana, a 13-year-old-girl, said she would love to become a pediatrician when she grows up so she can medically care for the children.

Sana said she helps her foster mother raise the little children in the house.

"I wish this crisis end soon so that Syria can return to what it was before. I want to become a pediatrician so I can help little children because I love them," Sana said.

Suad, her mother, won a prize for being the ideal foster mother at the SOS village.

"Our role is to help the children, to embrace them, to understand their needs, because each child comes with different circumstances," Suad said.

Suad said her role is to "bring those children together in order to help them and offer them comprehensive care covering their emotional, social and physical needs."

Suad added that raising orphans from different backgrounds requires substantial effort.

"We teach them proper behavior as some children come to us with improper behavior since they received no previous help in discerning right from wrong. Honestly, I never felt the children were not actually mine. On the contrary, I always felt I was their real mother. All mothers in the village feel the same way."

Suad said village mothers give birth to children with their hearts, not wombs.

In Damascus' suburb of Qudsayia, the SOS Village fosters over 140 children from various areas and backgrounds, who live together as one family.

The SOS Village is built on 54 acres, with playgrounds and 18 housing units, and each unit is designed to accommodate eight children.

However, owing to the current crisis, between 12 and 16 children currently live together in one unit.

Each child comes with a different story which led him or her to the village.

Some lost their parents or were displaced from them during the conflict, while others were abandoned by their parents due to the country's harsh economic situation.

Still, the painful events the children lived through does not prevent them from blending into their new home, cheerfully playing around whilst dreaming of a better future.

Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, said "Millions of Syrian children are witnessing their past and future disappear amidst this prolonged conflict. We must rescue them for their sake and for the sake of Syria's future generations." Endit