Maram scrunches up her little nose and pauses as she remembers . The eight-year-old was daddy 's favorite . `` When he was going to work he was shot , '' she says . By whom , no one can say for sure , but Syria 's merciless war does not differentiate between combatant and civilian -- and it is leaving behind countless children like Maram who have lost one or both parents along with their innocence . `` I saw him when they brought him to the house when he was dead , '' Maram continues . `` I said 'God have mercy on you ' and I prayed . '' She has an inquisitive , heart-shaped face . She listens intently to our questions , and often stops to think before answering . `` I would see him in my dreams , I would see him giving someone something or taking someone somewhere . I used to see him , but now I do n't anymore . '' She is one of around 34 children between the ages of two and 10 who live during the week at the Beyti Orphanage in southwest Turkey , near the Syrian border . Their fathers are all dead -- some lost to illness and some , like Maram 's dad , to the violence consuming Syria . Their mothers , refugees in Turkey , ca n't afford to properly clothe and feed them . At Beyti there is bath time , fresh clothes , and beds to sleep on . There are toys to replace those that the children had to leave behind , regular hot healthy meals , and clean water to wash with . Maram and her friend Mohammed whisper next to me on the couch . He pulls a tie out of his pocket . `` Someone was giving them out , '' he explains . The pair erupt in giggles as Maram tries to put it on him . Her father had taught her how to tie the knot , but she does n't really remember . `` Are you guys best friends ? '' I ask . `` We 're not friends , we 're siblings , '' Mohammed replies . Maram looks at me , her eyes open wide , and she smiles . `` He considers himself my brother , '' she tells me . `` We 're all family here , '' another child pipes in . The Beytin Orphage , which opened in September , was established by the Maram Foundation . It was named not the little girl we met , but for another of the same name who was paralyzed from the waist down by a shrapnel wound to her spine . `` We 're trying to raise our children away from all of the ideologies happening inside Syria , '' Beyti 's co-founder Yakzan Shishakly tells us , alluding to the radical extremist violent Muslim ideology that is thriving in his homeland . `` And we also want to give them the right to have a normal life away from the war because of the regime . '' The focus here is not only on trying to create a `` normal '' environment , but also on helping these children heal from the trauma they witnessed . `` There were some cases that were very obvious , those were the cases of anger and aggression , '' says Mayada Abdi , head of the orphanage , describing some of the children who have come to Beyti since it opened . Maram was very solitary when she first arrived , preferring to stay alone . `` She would remember things that were beautiful memories that were taken from her , especially those that were tied to her father , all her trips , '' Abdi says . `` All her stories are about her father . So you would often find her sitting remembering those times . '' Nothing can alter the inexplicable pain brought into these children 's lives by violence that defies logic , from a war they are too young to understand . But at least here they have a chance to perhaps move past it and salvage what they can of their childhood . Maram , for one , is already looking to the future . `` I want to be an Arabic teacher , '' she says . `` Back home in Syria . ''
Thousands of children have lost one or both parents during Syria 's brutal civil war . The Beytin Orphanage in southwest Turkey was established in September by the Maram Foundation . `` We 're trying to raise our children away from all of the ideologies happening inside Syria , '' Beyti 's co-founder says .