“He constantly asks for news about his father, mother and sister”: orphans left after the earthquake in Syria

In a hospital in the Northwest SyriaEight-year-old Hana asks for news about her parents and sister every day. She does not yet know that she is the only one in the family who survived the earthquake.

An earthquake that devastated entire regions on February 6 Syria And Turkeywith a balance of 40,000 deaths, left many orphans.

Faced with a growing toll of victims, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) fears the “appalling number” of children who have lost their parents.

Hana was pulled out of the rubble 33 hours after the earthquake in the city of Harim, near the border with Turkey, where the building in which she lived with her family collapsed.

“We tried to save her father, the rescuer, her mother and her sister, but they all died,” said Abdallah Sharif, the girl’s uncle, at the nearby Maarrat Misrin hospital where she was admitted.

“He constantly asks for news about his father, mother and sister.” Vaad, four years old. “We dare not tell him the truth. We answer that they are in another department of the hospital,” he adds.

In her hospital bed, surrounded by valentines, the light-eyed girl tries to smile despite her facial injuries and a cast on her arm.

Bassel Steffi, the doctor caring for her, explains that she arrived in critical condition.

“She is dehydrated after spending more than 30 hours under the rubble without food or drink in this cold. Now she is in intensive care, her condition is stable, but she is at risk of amputation of her arm,” she says.

Hana’s uncle fears that the girl’s condition will worsen if he learns of the death of her relatives, and prefers to resort to the help of specialists to break the news.

“Children are at serious psychological risk as a result of severe shock,” said Samah Hadid, spokesman for the Norwegian Council for Middle Eastern Refugees.

Hana has only her grandparents and uncle to raise her in this rebel-controlled region, where most of the population has arrived, displaced from other parts of the country. Syria at war.

“Father hugged him”

According to UNICEF, more than seven million children suffer from earthquake in two countries, of which 2.5 million Syria.

For many of them, “it’s an injury on top of other injuries,” said James Elder, a spokesman for the organization. UNICEF.

“Every child under the age of 12 is only familiar with conflict, violence and displacement” in Syria, he adds.

In the same city of Harim, where about 35 buildings failed to withstand the earthquake, three-year-old Arslan Berry was the only one who survived the collapse of his house.

“The house where my sister lived collapsed. We dug for three days and found his lifeless father hugging him and holding the hand of his other two children,” says his uncle Ezzat Hamidi, 30.

According to this relative, his mother was found about two meters away from him.

“My nephew lost his mother, sister and two brothers. He is in danger of having his legs amputated,” adds a young man who goes from hospital to hospital with a small boy in shock to get the help he needs.

“The child’s lower limbs were crushed by debris,” explains Dr. Omar al-Ali from Sarmada Children’s Hospital, adding that he also has problems with internal organs.

“We saved many children who are still alive, but there are others who are dead,” Obada Ziqra, a White Helmets spokesman who leads rescue operations in Syria’s rebel areas, told AFP.

Among them was a newborn still attached to his dead mother by the umbilical cord and having lost all his family members in a building in Jandairis, near the Turkish border.

“We experience great joy every time we save a living child,” adds the rescuer. “But we hope that the children in our region, who have only experienced bombing and displacement and have never enjoyed stability, can grow up like other children in the world and go to school,” he concludes.

(According to AFP)