Children pay the heaviest price

In areas of more intensive fighting in Syria, one in every five schools has been destroyed, damaged or is being used as shelter for displaced families. In Aleppo, only 6 percent of the children are attending school. Classes that still function are overcrowded with as many as 100 children in one class, according to a UNICEF report. Many children are suffering the psychological consequences of seeing their family members and friends killed or injured.

Drinking water has become a precious commodity in Syria. In the most deprived areas, access to water has fallen by two-thirds, resulting in increased skin and respiratory infections. Only about 4 million people in Syria have access to safe water, and the basic infrastructure and public services have been systematically destroyed over the past year, warns UNICEF.

Many children in Syria have become victims of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture and killing. Still many have been recruited by fighters and forced to fight in the conflict. And quite a number of children have been maimed after stepping on explosive remains.

Thousands of children have sought refuge in overcrowded collective shelters that lack even the most basic amenities and services. Vaccination against common diseases has become a luxury, and most parents cannot afford to pay their children's schooling costs such as transport fare, supplies and lunch.

Given the tremendous fallout on Syrian children, it is obvious that the international community has failed to protect them, to spare them the consequences of a barbaric conflict. As Lake said: "We must all share the shame."

The author is an international medical consultant and a co-winner of an

Overseas Press Club of America award.