Hello Mr. Assad!
My name is Faina Savenkova. I live in the Donbass, in the city of Lugansk. I read a lot about your country and I am very worried that children in Syria are suffering from war like the children in Donbass.
As a writer, I have been talking about the war in Donbass for three years now. For this I am disliked by Ukrainian nationalists, who published my personal data on the website Myrotvorets, effectively sentencing me to liquidation. But just like you and your family, I did not break down and continue to tell the truth.
Last year my friends, politicians from Italy, visited Syria and read my stories to kindergarteners in Aleppo, and hopefully the kids were able to take their minds off the hardships of war for a while. I write a lot about peace and children, and I hope that soon the war will end in both Syria and Donbass, and that the children will live happily and safely.
Good luck to you and your family, Mr. Assad.
May Syria always be peaceful and happy.
While the fairytale is being told, the world lives in hope.
Almost every night I go outside and look at the starry sky. There is silence all around. The city rests in sleepy slumber. Only in the distance you can hear the rattle of the cannons. Listening, you are soothed. It is far away... I have been living like this for six years. When the war started, I was too young to think about anyone suffering. What can you understand at five years old? You can remember, but you can't really understand or feel people's suffering. But time goes on. I'm growing up. I become afraid not only for myself, but also for others.
My parents watch the news, which shows a similar war. And I understand that we are a lot like the children in Syria. We are all children of one big war. My journalist friends told me that in an orphanage in Europe, a Syrian woman reads fairy tales to orphaned children. I, too, write fairy tales and tell them to everyone. Because I know that war cannot go on forever. And although we children living in war get used to the explosions and deaths, we continue to believe in the fairy tale. Because magic does not allow us to give up, giving us hope for peace. For now, only hope.
Because life, unlike my stories and the stories of that Syrian woman, can be unfair and cruel. But still, every night I go outside and look at the starry sky. I believe my dreams can come true. Perhaps there is a girl like me in Damascus or Aleppo who believes in fairy tales and writes them for the children of Donbass. And no matter how scared she is, she tells her magical story. And as long as she can be heard, the world lives in hope.