Girl without lower limbs uses tin legs instead of prosthetics at displacement camp in Idlib, Syria

Heartbreaking footage shows a little girl using makeshift prosthetic legs made from tin cans at a displacement camp in Syria.

Eight-year-old Maya Ali Merhi and her father were both born without lower limbs, a condition called congenital amputation, the cause of which is unknown.

Unable to afford real prosthetics, Maya’s father was able to make a pair out of tin cans filled with cotton and pieces of cloth for his daughter at the camp for displaced refugees in the Syrian province of Idlib.

In the footage, forelorn Maya can be seen by her father’s side as he explains how he made the pair of tin legs for his daughter.

‘I mounted some plastic on two tins of sardines with which she can go to school with. 

‘My heart suffers when I see her crawling in front of friends, while they play and run.’

Maya, 8, can be seen here walking around the camp using the legs her father, right, made for her out of tin and pieces of cloth

Mohammed, who also needs prosthetics said: ‘It’s hard but those are better than nothing.’

The family fled Aleppo because of the fighting  and to ‘flee bombings’ and were placed at the camp in Idlib, the last major territory in rebel hands.

Idlib is being held by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadi group that Russia and the Syrian government regard as a target in an area where civilians and fighters continue to pour in as part of evacuation deals in other parts of the country.

Mohammed says that his dream is for the pair of them to walk again. Father and daughter were both born without lower limbs

Mohammed says that he can at least find solace in the fact that his family can live a quiet life at the camp but has a dream that he and his daughter will be able to walk again.

According to Syria Appeal, 13.1 million people across Syria are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, including more than five million children.

Three million people are living in besieged areas and displacement camps without access to humanitarian aid and the total number of displaced Syrians has risen to 11.5 million.