Hunger and a lack of prospects pose a threat to people in the earthquake region

08.03.2024 - 11:08 - Syrien
A year ago, the images of the earthquake in north-west Syria and Turkey shocked the whole world. Towns lying in ruins and makeshift tent accommodation are still a sad reality in the affected regions 12 months later. People's everyday lives are characterised by poverty and the constant fear of not being able to feed their families. arche noVa supports those in need with what they need most urgently and works to ensure that children in particular are given the chance of a better life with sustainable services.
 
Das Bild zeigt Ahmed Hassan mit zwei seiner Söhne. Die Kinder sind ungefähr 4 und 7 Jahre alt. Das jüngere hält eine Tüte mit Brot in den Händen.
Ahmed Hassan and his family survived the earthquake in February 2023, but lost their home in the process. As there are hardly any income opportunities in the region, the bread distributed by our partner organisation Bonyan is a great help in ensuring the family's survival.
©arche noVa/Bonyan

Ahmed Hassan lives with his wife and children in a refugee centre near Afrin. His life - and that of his family - changed forever on 6 February 2023. During the earthquake, the house they were sleeping in collapsed on top of them. Ahmed, his wife and young daughter sought shelter under a staircase. After the quake, the father of the family feared that his other children had been buried under the rubble:

After we got out of the house, I looked for my children where they always slept. I was sure they were buried under the rubble, but they had escaped in time.

Ahmed Hassan und ein Mitarbeiter von Bonyan stehen in einem offensichtlich zerstörten Haus. Am Boden liegen Trümmer, rechts sieht man eine stark beschädigte Treppe. Hinter Ahmed ist eine offene Ziegelwand zu sehen.
Ahmed Hassan shows a member of staff from our partner organisation Bonyan the house where he lived with his family before the disaster. On the night of the earthquake, Ahmed, his wife and daughter hid under the stairs to protect themselves from the collapsing walls.
©arche noVa/Bonyan

The move to Afrin is not the family's first. They were forced to leave their home in Kafr Naya in the west of rural Aleppo back in 2019. Fleeing the civil war, they found a new home in Jindires. They lost this too with the earthquake.

Lack of water, food and opportunities for a better future

Ahmed and his family are among the 5.3 million people who have been left homeless by the earthquake. Like around half of Syria's population, they are threatened by a lack of food - and are therefore dependent on the distribution of vital relief supplies.

One of the projects that arche noVa has launched together with the local partner organisation Bonyan involves opening bakeries and the associated regular distribution of bread in the areas affected by the earthquake and civil war. So far, eight bakeries have been (re)opened and more than 71,000 bread parcels of 1 kilogramme each are distributed every month.

Bread is the most important thing in our household. Before I received support, I had great difficulty getting enough bread, mainly because of the size of my family, the limited work opportunities and also because of the earthquake that destroyed so much. The free bread is of very good quality and a great help to us.

Ahmed H., family man from Jindires

Local bakeries improve the food situation in the earthquake region

Better opportunities for the future and a bit of peace of mind for the next generationtion

Part of being a child is being allowed to play and learn. For children in the perpetual crisis region of north-west Syria, however, poverty and destruction are part of everyday life. Due to the civil war, an entire generation has already been affected by the lack of educational and development opportunities. The earthquake has made the situation even worse. 

arche noVa is implementing a programme in the Idlib region that focuses on the needs of children and gives them the basic right to education. The aim of the programme is for the children to achieve a level of education that enables them to attend a regular school. To date, more than 4,000 children have taken advantage of arche noVa's education programme in north-west Syria, 93% of whom have subsequently been able to continue their schooling.

Eine Gruppe von Kindern im Grundschulalter sowie eine Lehrerin sitzen gemeinsam auf einer Decke. Jedes der Kinder schreibt etwas auf ein Blatt Papier. Hinter ihnen steht ein Whiteboard. Um die Kinder herum ist Mauerwerk zu sehen, über ihnen der blaue Himmel.
In temporary learning centres, the participating children receive lessons in Arabic, English and maths. They also receive psychosocial support from specially trained teams to help them overcome their traumas.
©arche noVa/Bonyan

In addition to basic lessons in Arabic, English and maths, psychosocial support for children is also part of the programme. This is because many of them have suffered severe trauma as a result of losing relatives, fleeing violence and experiencing the earthquake, which they have to deal with. As part of the project, they are invited to spend their free time playing and doing sports in a protected environment while being looked after by a specially trained team.

 

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