Daily airstrikes and bombs prompted Syrian father Abdullah Mohammad to come up with a new way to help his daughter Salwa adapt to the sounds of war.
He encourages the three-year-old to simply laugh whenever she hears the sound of bombs or missiles.
In video footage obtained by Reuters, Mohammed is seen laughing with his daughter as the sound of an apparent explosion is heard in the distance.
Mohammad noted that many children suffer psychological hardships and stress due to daily airstrikes.
He said that he managed to convince his daughter that these noises are similar to sounds of fireworks and that they are nothing to be scared of.
Airstrikes drove his family far from his hometown of Saraqib in northwest Syria, forcing him to live at his friend’s house with his wife and daughter in Sarmada.
The 32-year-old said he hoped for a restored sense of normalcy, and a proper education for his daughter, in the near future.
Backed by heavy Russian airstrikes and aided by pro-Iranian militias, government forces have intensified since the start of the year their campaign to recapture the Aleppo countryside and parts of neighboring Idlib province in the far northwest of Syria where anti-Assad insurgents hold their last strongholds.
