Brave

A four-year-old boy separated from his
family while fleeing Syria has been found crossing the desert alone. Clutching a plastic bag containing his
possessions, Marwan makes his way across
the border into Jordan. The brave youngster was helped by United
Nations staff who managed to reunite him
with his worried family. He is just one of over a million Syrian
children who have been forced to leave their
homes because of the war. Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said: "The journey across the desert can
take one day or several weeks. "It's very dangerous because there is still
fighting going on and it's the middle of winter
so it can be freezing cold at night. "The journey is long and exhausting, so it's
impossible for a four-year-old to cross the
desert by himself. "We think Marwan may have got lost during
the night. At the moment we don't know
anything more." On Sunday night Marwan entered Jordan
near the sprawling Za'atari camp, which is
home to over 100,000 refugees. The heartbreaking picture was taken by
Andrew Harper - the UNHCR's rep in
Jordan. His team were helping scores of refugees
cross the desert when they spotted Marwan. The UNHCR say there are hundreds of
thousands of children in a similar situation. Andrej added: "The Syria conflict has now
been going on for three years and at the
moment we are dealing with 2.4 million
refugees. "The important statistic is that over one
million of these refugees are children. "Because they miss out on education we are
calling them the 'lost generation' of Syria. "Unfortunately there are lots of Marwans out
there." The UNHCR - a UN agency which helps
refugees, believes 425,000 kids under the
age of five have been displaced. And they have identified over 8,000 child
refugees who have been separated from
their immediate family.