Shirin Yaseen from the Office of the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General visited northwestern Syria as part of a mission to assess the situation.
“On the day we visited Jindairis in northern Syria, one of the areas most affected by the February earthquake, the weather conditions were very bad. A mobile medical clinic in a tent is lifted off the ground by high-altitude air circulation equipment and medical equipment.
Young girls play at a reception center for displaced people in Jindairis, Aleppo governorate.
The dreams of children at this camp are simple. One told me he needed glasses, the other good shoes so he could walk the paths that didn’t have the camp. One young woman, Ahlam, told me that all she wanted was to go back to school. A mother asked for a wheelchair for her 20-year-old daughter.
Earthquake experience
In another camp, in Idleb, called Kammonah I met Yazi Khaled Al-Abdullah whose suffering reflects the experience of hundreds of thousands of people who were made homeless as a result of the earthquake.
He told me how good it was at 4 am, but he didn’t know what was going on. His children told him not to be afraid, after they all left their house, he collapsed. It has rained and they are shivering from the cold, but they don’t know what to do or where to go.
Yazi Khaled Al-Abdullah was living in a tent after the earthquake.
They arrived at the Kammona camp and were encouraged to register for shelter. A month after the earthquake they were still living in a tent with two other families.
Yazi Khaled Al-Abdullah told me that he likes to cook but doesn’t have pots or a gas stove. Sometimes prepared food, usually rice, is provided, but he has diabetes, so he doesn’t have the nutrition he needs.
He and his family are eager to return home even if that means living a basic life. He used an Arabic phrase that says that even if they have bad things to eat, they still want to go back to their hometown.
His family left Sinjar eight years ago because of the war in Syria and spent time here and there. She told me that her son and her husband were working in their land and taking care of sheep when they were killed by the plane. In his words, they have become martyrs.
I also met Mazyad Abdul Majeed Al-Zayed, who is in charge of Ajnadayn camp in Jindairis and who was affected by the earthquake.
He explained the difficult conditions the camp residents were living in, due to the lack of everything, including tents. Mobile clinics operate in the area, but they do not have medicine and are only available occasionally.
Mazyad Abdel-Majeed Al-Zayed, manages the Ajnadayn camp in Jindairis.
He said the bench was awful and he didn’t bring his family here because he couldn’t bear to see them living in such a situation.
Later, I visited the camps built opposite the Al-Rafa Specialized Hospital in Jindairis, which have mobile clinics, including one for children and one for women.
Patients and visitors are received daily in these hospitals, which were set up several days after the earthquake.
The hospital is surrounded by ruined buildings, and the medical staff live and work in the same conditions as the people they treat.
The medical system in this part of Syria was terrible even before the earthquake, and now the medical staff is exhausted and the equipment is almost completely broken.
Countless people affected by the earthquake have sought refuge in this area in northwest Syria. Many people did that to escape the war that has been going on for 12 years now.
The UN launched a $400 million humanitarian appeal to support displaced families.
One woman I spoke to said she didn’t know what her future held after fleeing for five years from Saraqib to Afrin, which had been bombed, and then to Jindairis.
I met and talked to many people, including children who were separated from their parents, whose lives were affected by the war and then the earthquake.
But I also meet people who have hope and hope for a bright future. I met the hardworking and caring aid workers who work with the UN and try every day to improve the lives of those affected.
Meanwhile, the UN has launched a $400 million humanitarian appeal, and continues to work with its partners to ensure that relief supplies reach the most vulnerable people.
Find out more here about the UN’s work in Syria.
