Dark to Light - A Syrian Child’s Journey
The Expressive Art of War-Wounded Syrian Refugee Youth

The Syrian civil war is exacting a heavy toll on an entire generation of its children. Traumatized and displaced, it is this generation if left unsupported, who will carry with them the debilitating scars of brutality and loss.
These expressive paintings are on loan to us from Syrian refugee children who have crossed the border into neighboring Jordan, where  they receive prosthetics,   rehabilitation  and psychological trauma care.
Expressions of both horror and hope, these images reveal a continuum of recovery reflecting powerful emotions the children feel, but often do not have the words to express.
Over the course of the therapeutic process the subject matter slowly shifts its focus from dark to light, death to life.
As hope emerges it reveals a depth of resilience, courage, and optimism for the future that, if supported, will carry each child through the healing process placing them firmly along the road to recovery.  
Since 2013 the Polus Center has been working closely with various rehabilitation centers throughout Amman to provide injured Syrian children with mobility devices and rehabilitation services, including artificial limbs, wheelchairs, braces, physical therapy & psychological care.
Training programs have  been established that bring highly skilled prosthetists from around the world to train technicians in biomechanics and the fabrication of artificial limbs.  ​​

Asia Development and Training (ADT) is a locally based non-profit working to build national capacity to treat and care for the huge numbers  of refugees and war wounded victims of conflict in the region. 

ADT ensures local involvement, and is especially committed to training women and Syrian refugees who themselves have experienced limb loss. This “train the trainer” program model offers professionals and paraprofessionals instruction in prosthetic/orthotic construction and also in physical therapy.
 
 In 2017 , Find A Better Way  funded the Sir Bobby Charlton Centre for Support & Rehabilitation in Amman, Jordan. The fully equipped Centre  brings together the Polus Center and ADT under one roof, providing a state of the art facility for their humanitarian work.
These direct assistance and capacity-building efforts create continuity of care for victims, economic opportunities for trainees, and support for Jordan in the monumental task of caring for the influx of over 660,000 Syrian refugees.