Six year old plays flute all day to keep his family alive
Features Saturday, March 21, 2015 - 05:30
The News Minute| November 28, 2014| 13.22 pm IST
He is all of six years, and yet he spends all of his day playing flute on the busy streets in Istanbul, Turkey to feed his mother and four siblings. The young boy and his family fled from the war ravaged country of Syria as ISIS forces take over the country.
Passersby drop coins and some offer food. In a day, Issa earns about 10 dollars and the family of five fights to stay alive in an open park with no shelter. Playing the flute all day gives him a headache, he complains. Even in poverty, he does not think twice before offering a fruit to the journalist who talks to him.
Begging in Istanbul is illegal. He flees at the sight of police who confiscate his flute. Buying another flute would cost him five dollars - half of his daily earnings. But that's his only way to feed his family, so he does not mind shelling that money.
Issa lost his father in Aleppo, Syria and according to a UN report, there are over one million registered refugees in Turkey so far and the numbers are on the rise.
Watch a video by CNN who capture the struggles of Issa.
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