An 8-year-old Syrian girl pictured moving around a refugee camp on artificial limbs made of plastic tubing and tin cans is to receive medical care in Turkey after her plight was seen around the world.

Maya Merhi was born with no legs due to a congenital condition, and up until now has been walking on homemade prosthetics cobbled together by her father Mohammad Merhi, 34, who also shares the same disability known as congenital amputation which means the person is born without lower limbs.

But after pictures of her plight in Syria were seen around the world, she was brought to Istanbul for treatment. And her life should be about to change.

"Maya will walk," said Dr Mehmet Zeki Culcu, the prosthetics specialist treating her at an Istanbul clinic. "God willing, in three months time."

Maya, originally from Aleppo region, had been living with her father at a camp for displaced people in the Idlib region of northern Syria, victims of Syria's over seven year civil war.