After a rocket hit this Syrian family’s house last year, demolishing the structure, Alaattin Osman kept the remains of the missile as a kind of morbid souvenir.
But then he realized it could be useful.
It took a little metal work, but he turned it into a stove. Now, the former implement of destruction is warming Osman and his family through the winter in Idlib.
It’s a modern-day example of a Bible verse, where the prophet Isaiah calls on people to “beat their swords into ploughshares.” In other words, turn the tools of war into tools of peace.
Peace is in short supply in Syria, as a civil war between President Bashar al-Assad and various opposition forces has raged for nearly a decade.
It’s killed hundreds of thousands of people and created millions of refugees.
And families like Osman’s, caught in the middle, must struggle to stay alive — and warm — however they can.