Wo schon Kinder oft an Selbstmord denken

„‚When I tried to kill myself, it was like the devil filled my head,‘ she says, twisting her hands in her lap, her voice flat and expressionless. ‚I don’t remember much about it. All I could think about was that we have nothing, our lives will never improve, and I could relieve my mother of another burden.‘ In February, Khowla’s mother, Sanaa, came back to their tent to find her lying on the floor, foaming at the mouth and vomiting. She had swallowed rat poison she found in the camp. Khowla was in intensive care for 18 days. ‚She was between life and death,‘ Sanaa says, stroking her daughter’s hair. ‚I asked her, »My daughter, why did you drink the poison?« She said, »Mama, there are seven of us and you work and work to feed us, but you can’t keep up. Without me, there will be one less person to feed.’« When she said that, I couldn’t stop crying.” (…)

Given the misery to which their lives have been reduced, it should be no surprise that many Syrians are turning to suicide as an escape. According to a 2014 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) study, 41 percent of Syrian youths in Lebanon say they have had suicidal urges. Local NGO workers say they have been unable to compile precise statistics on suicide attempts and completions, because much of the refugee population is deeply religious and suicide is considered a grievous sin in Islam. But they do say that incidents of suicide attempts by adolescent Syrians are being reported with increasing frequency.“

(Sulome Anderson: „Syria’s Refugee Children Have Lost All Hope“)

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