HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Khawla al-Khalaf, who has lost her husband in an explosion during battles against the Islamic State organization (ISIS) for years, stands next to the whiteboard in a rehabilitation center in Hasakah, northeast Syria, teaching children of ISIS basics of literacy and numeracy.
In a prefabricated room, al-Khalaf teaches 15 children, whom she said, she loves them, and teaches them instructions for etiquette, behavior and value goals, in addition to citing verses of the Holy Quran or Sunnah.
On October 25, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) opened Halat Center for rehabilitating and caring for children whose parents of either dead ISIS militants or detained in prisons supervised by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The center includes eight trainers and nannies with skills and experiences in dealing with children imbued with extremist ideas, according to the administration of Halat Center.
Women’s protection Units (YPJ), a main group of the SDF, in cooperation with the US-led Global Coalition provide support to the center in order to educate and rehabilitate the children of female detainees, who operated with ISIS and its sleeper cells.
“The conditions of those children should be change because they are mere children who do not have the choice to choose their parents. It is not their fault,” al-Khalaf said.
The center is a house for about 55 children of foreign nationalities and they are between 2 and 12 years old. The children head to the center during the morning center, which is located near the eastern entrance of Hasakah city, and they meet their detained mothers in the evening.
The center includes five prefabricated rooms some of which are for teaching and others are for playing.
“losing him hurts me”
The family of the 36-year-old al-Kahaf hails from Hasakah, but she moved with her husband, who hails from Deir ez-Zor, to live in the city of al-Mayadin before they returned to Hasakah due to the deteriorating security conditions they witnessed.
In 2016, her husband joined the SDF following the campaign it launched to liberate Deir ez-Zor from ISIS.
“My husband used to say he would stop injustice,” the wife said regarding her husband’s goal of joining the campaign.
On October 10, 2017, her husband got martyred along with other eight fighters during a VBIED explosion near al-Ma’amel Roundabout, seven kilometers north of Deir ez-Zor.
The SDF says about 11,000 fighters got martyred during battles against ISIS and Turkish attacks on Syrian territory.
“I have four children the older one was six years old his name was Muhammad and the younger son was nine months when he got martyred,” Khawla referred that her younger son does not recognize his father.
“My children grew up and their needs increased…. losing him hurts me,” she added.
As a result of her deteriorating conditions, “I used to look for job opportunities, I searched for a suitable work in order not to be away from my children for long hours.”
“The innocent should be saved”
While searching for a job, “I heard about the center and about those children,” and when she knew about those children’s conditions, she had the desire to take care of them.
ISIS ideology is the reason after losing her husband and many other young people in Syria, so that she is trying to free children from it during her work at the center.
Children receive lessons in Arabic and English in addition to musical, drawing, and sport activities.
Khawla knows English and mathematics, and her religious culture helps her in affecting the children’s behavior by winning their love and acceptance.
The nanny believes that the center accomplished a quarter of its mission of changing the extremist ideology implanted in the children’s minds, by creating interaction between them and the educators, and by starting activities and lessons.
She pointed out that the poor capabilities interrupt the desired significant impact on children since they spend eight hours at the center and then return to their mothers at the detention centers, where they witness extremism for 16 hours.
Mothers of those children live in a prison for women supervised by SDF supported by the US-led Global Coalition as a result of committing crimes and assassinations, and fleeing attempts in Hawl Camp, east of Hasakah.
Meanwhile, some other children have become orphans because their parents died during battles by ISIS during its last days in Syrian areas.
Obstacles and risks
The center has not received any support by any humanitarian organization, official in Halat Center, Parwin al-Ali, said.
It is abnormal to have children with their mothers in the detention centers, they should be taken out in order for them to be properly reintegrated with society, according to al-Ali.
“The children were very violent, but during the experimental period before the opening of the center, a slight change was achieved,” she added.
Al-Ali referred to the difficulty in “dealing with the young children, who do not know Arabic, so that signs and gestures are used to deal with them.”
However, nannies are the ones to face a greater difficulty when dealing with older children (10/12 years old), “since they have been taught the ISIS ideology for many years.”
After the age of 12, the males join the Houri Rehabilitation Center in the countryside of Qamishli, northeast Syria.
Al-Ali revealed about a complementary project to embrace the females between the ages of 12 and 18 years old.
She warned about neglecting the proper rehabilitation of this generation, which, after several years, “will pose a danger to various parts of the world.”
“Because if they stay like this, no one will accept them, and this will have negative impacts on the entire society,” Khawla al-Khalaf noted.
“I hope that this center will succeed for sake of changing this ideology and build a peaceful generation that can be useful for the society and itself,” al-Khalaf and other nannies hope.
“I hope that either my children or the children of the center live in better circumstances that we witnessed before and be able of changing the ideas of extremism,” Khawla al-Khalaf concluded.