A British man helping humanitarian aid efforts in Syria one month on from the deadly earthquake says families are too scared to move back into damaged homes amid ongoing aftershocks.
Unicef worker Joe English, from Oxford, told the Standard that overcrowded camps filled with hundreds of families left displaced by the 7.8 magnitude quake on February 6 are desperately trying to avoid a cholera outbreak and get children back to education.
“If a cholera outbreak takes hold then that could be catastrophic,” he said.
“Something as simple as a glass of water could actually be a death sentence for children.”
A total of 115 schools in Syria have been destroyed and Unicef estimates 3.7 million children are affected there.
The natural disaster killed some 51,000 people across Turkey and Syria. Millions have been left homeless and 108,000 injured, with thousands of children left unaccompanied.
Funnelling humanitarian aid into opposition-occupied northwest Syria has proven a challenge for aid organisations, with communities there feeling neglected and forgotten.
Unicef has managed to cross the border and deliver safe drinking water and sanitation supplies to more than 400,000 Syrians in the aftermath of the destruction.
Hygiene kits were distributed at three camps for families displaced by the earthquakes in A’zaz, roughly 20 miles north-northwest of Aleppo, on March 1.
Mr English was there and spoke to displaced families living in tents.
He told the Standard: “You could still see the scars of the earthquakes (in the earth) and we have aftershocks continuing.
“All through town, you’re seeing lots of the remains of buildings. It’s wiring and concrete and so this stuff is being trucked out and the debris to be sorted through, because the reality is in northwest Syria, if there are valuable materials within that, then you can’t just scrap them.
“Families will be going through picking through gathering what they can, whether that’s scrap metal to sell, whether that’s the remnants of their lives that were destroyed in earthquakes.”
Mr English said 500 new families had moved to the camp he visited since the earthquake, where the spread of waterborne disease in cramped conditions could be catastrophic.
“Children have been through 12 years of conflict, they’ve been through four significant earthquakes,” he explained.
“But one of the biggest dangers to them right now could be something as simple as a glass of water.
“We also know that there are outbreaks of scabies of lice, other waterborne diseases and contact transmitted diseases.”
Families are also having to choose between the risk of returning home to unsafe, damaged homes, or continuing to live in tents.
“There was still an overwhelming sense of fear about returning because of the continuing aftershocks, because of this feeling of, ‘do we want to go back to a home where there’s structural damage?’”
Mr English added: “As a parent, I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to have to make that decision of choosing between a tent or a building that, if there’s another large aftershock, could collapse.”
Humanitarian needs in Syria were at their highest last year than they have ever been, Mr English said.
Unicef foussed on distributing safe drinking water, shelter, blankets and warm winter clothes in the immediate aftermath of the quake, when tens of thousands of families were left homeless in winter temperatures.
“It was dropping well below freezing and because the first earthquake was at 4am, families were fleeing their buildings in just pyjamas,” Mr English said.
“We were seeing families out in the street or sleeping in their cars if they had one, or huddled around fires in the street.”
Unicef and other partners are also now helping to provide temporary learning areas for children, called ‘School in a box’, which provide enough education supplies for around 100 to 200 children while repair work is undertaken on school buildings.
“We’re getting these into temporary camps so that the kids there are able to start making sure that they’re getting at least a couple of hours of schooling each day,” Mr English said.
In Syria 1,551 reportedly damaged schools have been assessed in Aleppo, Hama, Homs Lattakia, and 1,796 temporarily closed schools were reopened.
Israa is a kindergarten teacher at Kawkab Altfoula in Jindeiris, Aleppo - Syria’s second largest city.
When the earthquake struck, the school collapsed and five children and two teachers were killed.
“I started to check my students’ WhatsApp groups, and texted all parents,” she said.
“Please, tell us how you are. Your children have become part of our life.
“I cannot feel anything!.....We might accept adults’ death. But those were innocent kids....How can a teacher feel when her students die in the same minute?”
Unicef and partners have also reached more than 55,000 children with essential Child Protection services and supplies, including psychological first aid and recreational activities.
In Turkey more than 1,874 unaccompanied children have been identified and Unicef and partners have helped to reach 5,100 children with psychological support in Gaziantep, Kilis, Mardin, Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa provinces.
Nearly 277,000 people, including over 163,000 children, have been given supplies including hygiene kits, winter clothes, electrical heaters and blankets in Turkey.
Donations to Unicef’s efforts in Syria and Turkey can be made here.
