Anamel School was struck by barrel bombs, and the students were in the school when the bombs dropped and hit the school. The students were taking their school test and fearing for their lives when the school was bombarded. Being a student in Anamel School attending classes that can be shelled relentlessly by the air raids. At Anamel School, students can run from the sunlight into dim rooms to hide from the continuous airstrikes. It is very difficult for the students to attend the school because they feel that they are under pressure when they can be in dangerous any minute. The teachers are trying to lift the students’ spirits, so they get used to it.The students can have few notebooks and pencils among them, but they still enthusiastically enough to join the school and pay attention when teachers write on the whiteboard. In between the classes, the children go out in the yard for a brief break in the open air, despite the dangers that can be imposed to them by the air strikes in the city. The students attend their lessons in the schools and fair for their lives because of the ongoing bombings in the area. There are frequent dropping of explosive barrel bombs that cause killing and wounding many civilians indiscriminately.

Anamel students have fair to stay for a prolonged time in the school because they are scared that a plane might come and bomb the school. Schooling in Syria is now haphazard, with little in the way of possible delivery of a formal teaching curriculum and children of different ages are unable to gain an education. The idea of starting a gallery in Anamel School was established when one of the students has experienced some social difficulties and was trying to find a way to translate her struggling through drawing pictures. The school management has discovered that she had an amazing talent and has encouraged her and other students to express themselves through using drawing and painting. Safa is another student; she is in the second grade of science degree in Anamel School and has similar talent, but Safa can make varied objects in the shape of small building samples. She made a scale model of the school building, and the teachers were very impressed by her talent. Safa says: “Since my childhood I like to make small structures that are similar to in shape big buildings.””Anamel School is the only school that has encouraged me to follow my passion and make these scale samples”. “In the future, I dream to become an architect and make real buildings”. Some students have helped Safa to make her dream come true. The preparation of the gallery has took over a month to complete.

At the same time, a group of students were encouraged to prepare their own paintings and imprint them. Najib was the school supervisor that took care of these activities. Najib says that when one of the students has started to share her paintings and suddenly all the other students wanted to do the same. For that reason, the school has helped the students and provided them with some tools and ideas to express their emotions through drawing. The school has tried to offer these activities outside the educational lessons cause these activities can have a positive psychological impact on the students and can increase the level of their education performance.The school management has chosen a room in the school and turned it into a gallery room in which the students can place their drawings that they have produced during the year. The school has offered the students to coordinate by showing their paintings and place them in the room. The students were excited with the idea and started to arrange the gallery room to show their work to the other students. The students were waiting or the moment that the gallery will open and prior to the opening of the gallery in few days; the school was bombed by explosive barrels.

The explosive barrels have destroyed many rooms in the school that were next to the gallery room. The shelling has left a significant impact on the students, where they have witnessed the horrific explosion of the barrel. The explosive has left a huge damage in the ceiling of the school, and cause many collapsed walls. The gallery room has become a place where there is a mass destruction and no longer a gallery room for paintings. The school management has decided to move to a new building where the students can feel safer.On the second day of the shelling, the students came to school to attend their lessons as usual and saw what has happened to their school and the gallery room. Some of the students were totally frustrated and lost hope. Others were convinced to motivate themselves and to move forward in life. Samer is one of the students that was planning to take part in the gallery through presenting two of his paintings. Samer says that the barrels that have fallen on the school should not stop us; we should move to a new building and continue to work to rebuild our gallery and invite all students to attend.

Some of the students and teachers have tried to repair some of the damages in the gallery room as possible to draw an optimistic sign of hope for the students. The barrel bombs are highly indiscriminate crude weapons made of old containers that are packed with explosives and typically dropped by planes on civilians. These weapons are often used on some areas of Syria. Many schools had to close down and stop delivering education after these air attack that cause death to teachers and students.