Before his family urged him to flee the fighting in Syria , 17-year old Firas saw a bullet strike his sister in the head while they were in a car together . Maher , 16 , has not seen his father for nearly two years , ever since he was detained and tortured alongside him before being released . These young boys , separated from loved ones , are among the many thousands of children who 've escaped the shelling in their native Syria . But they now face the daily hardships of refugee life in neighboring Lebanon and Jordan . Starting a new life away from the old comforts of home , many are growing up in fractured families and are often the household 's main breadwinners , according to a report released Friday by the United Nations ' refugee agency , UNHCR . Scarred by the horrors of war , they suffer from psychological distress , live alone or separated from their parents , receive no education or are thrown into illegal child labor , the agency said . `` Our lives are destroyed , '' the report quoted 14-year-old Nadia , a newly arrived refugee in Jordan . `` We are not being educated , and without education there is nothing . We 're heading towards destruction . '' Syria 's ongoing conflict has torn countless families apart . Entire communities have been uprooted , scattering large populations within Syria and driving more than 2.2 million people into surrounding countries . Children have been particularly affected . In its first in-depth survey of Syrian refugee children since the conflict began in March 2011 , UNHCR spoke to those now living in Lebanon and Jordan . But there are many others who fled to other countries such as Turkey and Iraq . The report found that more than 70,000 Syrian refugee families live without fathers and over 3,700 refugee children are either unaccompanied by or separated from both parents . In many cases , not only are their fathers absent , but many children have no idea where they are . `` If we do not act quickly , a generation of innocents will become lasting casualties of an appalling war , '' U.N. high commissioner for refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement . Isolated and insecure . The report , entitled `` The Future of Syria -- Refugee Children in Crisis , '' paints the picture of a painful life -- one of isolation , exclusion and insecurity for many refugee children . Scars are both emotional and physical . In Jordan 's Za'atri camp , more than 1,000 children have been treated for war-related injuries over the past year . Anger and other emotional responses were also common , UNHCR said , adding that some refugee boys had expressed a desire to return to Syria to fight . Researchers also heard a report of boys being trained to fight in preparation for return to Syria , UNHCR said . Of the refugee children researchers interviewed , 29 % said that they left their home once a week or less -- home is often a crammed apartment , a makeshift shelter or a tent . In many cases , refugee families lacking a financial income send their children to work , to survive . Abdallah , 13 , said he wakes up every morning at 7 a.m. to buy dry bread from other refugees living in the Za'atri camp to help sustain his family . They then sell the bread to a Jordanian man who uses it to feed his animals . `` If people did n't work , how would they survive ? '' the young boy said in a video released by UNHCR . `` I feel like a man because I am working . I put food on the table for my family . '' In such tough conditions , there are more Syrian child refugees out of school than in . More than half of those in Jordan are not in school . In Lebanon , it is estimated that some 200,000 school-aged Syrian refugee children could remain out of school at the end of the year , UNHCR said . Many babies are also born in exile without birth certificates -- an essential document in the battle against statelessness . UNHCR says there are more than 1.1 million Syrian refugee children , most living in neighboring countries . `` The world must act to save a generation of traumatized , isolated and suffering syrian children from catastrophe , '' Angelina Jolie , UNHCR special envoy , who has worked to shine the spotlight on Syria 's refugee crisis , said in a statement . Syria 's conflict began after government forces cracked down on peaceful protesters during the Arab Spring movement . It has now become a full-blown civil war . The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 people have died in the fighting . Editors ' Note : This article has been edited to remove plagiarized content after CNN discovered multiple instances of plagiarism by Marie-Louise Gumuchian , a former CNN news editor .
More than one million Syrian ##s are refugees , authorities say . That 's half the Syrian refugee population . As many as 2000 people have been killed in the Syrian War .