Syria: Wissam, the hospital whizz-kid - 2013 (29 images)

13 year old teenager Wissam (real name withheld) has become one of the unknown heroes of the Syrian uprising. After his mother, a nurse at the Al-Noor Hospital in central Deir az-Zor, was killed by a sniper, Wissam took her place. Al-Noor is the largest hospital in town to treat injured or register deaths from fightings or shelling in the heavily contested town on the Euphrates river. Conditions are poor and all staff have been working for two years almost non-stop. Wissam is cleaning...
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13 year old teenager Wissam (real name withheld) has become one of the unknown heroes of the Syrian uprising. After his mother, a nurse at the Al-Noor Hospital in central Deir az-Zor, was killed by a sniper, Wissam took her place. Al-Noor is the largest hospital in town to treat injured or register deaths from fightings or shelling in the heavily contested town on the Euphrates river. Conditions are poor and all staff have been working for two years almost non-stop. Wissam is cleaning operating theatres, patients' rooms, corridors stained with blood of the wounded. Today even skilled teenagers are needed to maintain proceedings. He helps poeple recover, he has to let others die. Taken his age Wissam fulfills his job in an incredible manner. But according to him he is just doing his duty, just like anybody else. Living where he works he hardly ever sees his family, his five sisters and six brothers who stayed behind with his father.

Wissan (son nom a été changé), adolescent de 13 ans, est devenu un de ces héros anonymes de l'insurrection syrienne. Après que sa mère, qui travaillait comme infirmière, a été abattue par un tireur d'élite l'an dernier, Wissam a commencé à travailler à l'hôpital local. Malgré son jeune âge, il s'occupe de nettoyer les salles d'opération, les chambres des patients et les couloirs, souillés par le sang des blessés. Il doit faire face aux corps déchiquetés amenés à la morgue de l'hôpital. Mais il le prend comme la plupart des autres Syriens : il considère qu'il fait juste son devoir. Son sérieux et son sens des responsabilités lui ont permis de gagner le respect de tous ceux qui travaillent à l'hôpital. Et comme tout le monde ici, il vit où il travaille et ne voit donc presque jamais ses cinq jeunes soeurs et ses six frères qui vivent avec leur père.
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