Video: The Cat Man of Aleppo returns

Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel is a paramedic from Aleppo who has helped people during the regime's bombardment of the city. But Aljaleel has another curious job - he takes care of street cats, something he's done since his youth.

Aljaleel established the first cat sanctuary in Syria, named "Ernesto's house" after his first cat, and made international headlines back in 2016.

But while the world's attention turned away from Aleppo towards the next in a seemingly never-ending series of crises in the country, the cat-lover has continued his mission to care for Syria's strays - despite being forced to leave the original sanctuary after it was bombed and destroyed.

Now he's back to take care of the country's abandoned pets, and has teamed up with civil society groups to offer help to more than just cats, building playgrounds for local children and hoping to construct a school near his new facility in the Aleppo countryside. 

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Video by Aaref Watad


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