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A girl asks a passerby for help to pay a medical bill as her father sits in his wheelchair in the Douma neighbourhood of Damascus Syria February 3, 2016. Reuters Photographer Bassam Khabieh: “Shahrour, 54, developed diabetes at the beginning of the war in Syria. When the siege of Arbeen, in the Damascus suburbs, began, his medical condition worsened and his right foot was amputated. He can no longer work. He and some of his extended family, a total of 18 people, live in the same house. One son, 24, has chronic asthma and also cannot work. His children include two daughters. “When my pregnant daughter went to hospital in the city of Douma, she needed a drug which was not available in the hospital. (...) I did not have the money to buy the prescription...” He broke down in tears. Medication for father and son costs about $15 a month. The family cannot always raise that as the income of those in work varies each day. “We couldn't buy firewood” in winter, he said. “My children would collect some during the day which would burn in one hour on a long cold winter's night. When the weather got too cold, we burnt the old cotton pillows”. Shahrour thinks he and his family should flee their town, and also leave Syria. He knows the situation is no better outside, he said. Nor can he afford to shoulder the financial burdens he may face outside Syria. He and his family have no option but to stay, hoping for a breakthrough”. (Photo by Bassam Khabieh/Reuters)
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