Daraa, Syria. Cradle of the Syrian civil war that begun in 2011.

 

It was then that a couple of high schoolers painted graffiti on a local school’s wall that read, “Your turn, doctor.”

 

The message was directed to President Bashar al-Assad, who is also an ophthalmologist.

 

In previous weeks, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Tunisian President Ben Ali had recently been removed from office and the Syrian students were indicating al-Assad was next, according to VICE News.

 

Over 1,000 civilians died in the first months of the protests, according to the BBC.

The brutality of the conflict was exemplified by the Syrian government’s killing and torture of 13-year old Hamza al-Khateeb.

 

Al-Khateeb was arrested during the protests and his body was later returned to his family with lacerations, bruises, burns, bullet wounds, a broken neck, and mutilated genitals, according to Al-Jazeera.

 

That is the Syria Mohammed Al Zoubani lived in when he was eight years old.

 

“I was scared all the time,” Al Zoubani said. “We can’t sleep. We’re scared any time they hit us. We were really young, we didn’t want to die.”

 

In 2011, Al Zoubani had just returned home from school. He started hearing gunshots and bombs outside his house.

 

These weren’t foreign sounds for Al Zoubani, who had to rush back to school along with his family for protection.

 

His mother Bashm, his two older brothers, his younger sister and many families were all locked in the bottom floor of his school for four days with little food and vital supplies.

 

Al Zoubani doesn’t seem to be a person who underwent tragedy at eight; he has a seemingly permanent smile. The 15-year old that survived the Syrian civil war said he smiles because he wants to keep everyone on his side.

 

When he started narrating what happened at the school, his smile quickly faded and his cheerful voice changed to a somber tone.

 

The Al Zoubani family was accompanied to the school by what Mohammed said were about 55 other families.

 

55 families that entered with more relatives than they left with.

 

Al Zoubani said he witnessed at least three young infants die in the school because of lack of food, baby formula, and water. “That was the hardest part in all my life,” he said.

 

Almost no one left the school for those four days. And those who did, never returned.

 

Three people volunteered to go get supplies, according to Al Zoubani. “When they go, they never come back,” he said.

 

When those four days were over, the Al Zoubani family returned home. They walked past the corpses of those who left the school to help.

 

After arriving home, they were greeted by bullet holes and casings, and two militants’ dead bodies.

 

At that moment Al Zoubani’s father, Mamoun, decided the family would leave Syria.

 

The move took a couple of months, but when the Al Zoubani family left their home, Mohammed said he was in ruins.  

 

“I can’t explain that feeling. I was sad and I was crying. My dad was in our house and started yelling at me, saying we were coming back some day. I’m still waiting for that day to come,” he said.

 

The teenager, who is currently living in Phoenix, Arizona, is a freshman at McClintock High School in Mesa, Arizona.

 

His life goal is to become a doctor and eventually move back home. Mamoun is a diabetic and Mohammed wants to take care of him.

 

“I’m going to stay with you forever,” Mohammed told his dad when he asked him to take care of him when he was older.

 

He believes it will be at least 150 years until Syria can end and eventually recover from the civil war.  

 

But, Mohammed said the Syrian people do have the heart necessary to  come back from such a difficult moment. And he wants to help.

“I would do anything for them,” he said.