Northern Syria -

The child Hana Sharif still does not believe the fact that her family died under the rubble of their collapsed house in the earthquake in the town of Maarat Misrin in Idlib countryside, northern Syria, and she was the only survivor among them.

With her physical pain and the injury of her hand with crush syndrome, Hana (8 years old) suffers from great psychological suffering, as not a day goes by without her entering into a fit of crying and intense panic, demanding her mother and father before her uncle calms her down and tries to relieve her.

The child's uncle, Abdullah Sharif, says that his niece - who is staying today in his house - began a long-term treatment journey in a hospital in "Maarat Misrin" after she was pulled out from under the rubble and underwent several surgeries on her left hand after the earthquake disaster.

And Sharif adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the child is unable to bear the tragedy of losing her family, and she is in great shock.

Whenever her psychological condition worsens, he takes her to her parents' grave in order to relieve her.

Regarding the future of the child Hana and her sponsorship as an orphan, Sharif confirmed that several humanitarian organizations in northwestern Syria announced their intention to sponsor the orphans left by the devastating earthquake in the region, and that one of the humanitarian workers contacted him for the sake of his niece and asked him for identification papers about the death of the child's parents, but he did not return. again to complete the transaction.

Thus, the little girl spends her day between the painful memories of losing her parents and her little brother, while she tries to caress her little doll to escape from reality in a country that has been exhausted by war that has lasted for more than a decade and finally plunged into a complex crisis by the earthquake.

Hana was the only survivor after the bodies of her parents and brother were recovered from under the rubble of her family's house in rural Idlib (Al-Jazeera Net)

The number may be "terrifying"

Hana and her great ordeal do not appear to be an isolated case, as the earthquake left behind a large number of orphans in opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria, the exact number of which is not yet known.

While more than 4,000 people lost their lives in this area near the border with Turkey, where the epicenter of the earthquake was.

A report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) stated that more than 2.5 million Syrian children were affected by the earthquake, and that many children lost their parents in it.

"The number will be terrifying," he warned, given the catastrophic and growing death toll.


With the horror of the tragedy, humanitarian associations are active in following up the sponsorships of orphans in northwestern Syria, as several organizations, most notably the "Ataa Humanitarian Association" announced the sponsorship of all orphaned children who lost their parents in the earthquake disaster.

The number of orphans who applied via the electronic link published by the association since February 23 last reached about 1,500 children, according to the deputy director general of the association, Abd al-Rahman al-Shardoub, indicating that the foundation’s employees are verifying that the registered cases were victims of the earthquake, in coordination with the councils. local in northwest Syria.

Al-Shardoub said, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that the orphan verification process is followed by the stage of communication with the orphan's breadwinner, to become financially sponsored by the association.

The association studies the cases of orphaned children affected by the earthquake, as well as "unaccompanied" children, that is, those who were separated from their families after the disaster, to be included in the financial guarantee.

Al-Shardoub indicated that the association has established a hotline to provide psychological support by phone, as well as an electronic platform to receive cases in need of psychological support, in addition to providing clinics for treatment and psychological support targeting those affected by the earthquake, especially orphans.

An orphan Syrian girl lost her family in the earthquake in Idlib, and an unknown fate awaits her (Al-Jazeera Net)

Loss of speech and other effects

It does not seem that the issue will end when securing the material needs of the orphan children who lost their parents due to the earthquake, as it takes a great effort to get them out of the trauma that accompanies them from the first day of the disaster.

The psychiatrist, Mowaffaq Amouri, says that the psychological effects of the earthquake disaster on children, especially orphans, are represented in a state of constant fear and complete isolation, and the loss of some of them the ability to speak with the recording of cases of involuntary urination and unwillingness to eat.

Amouri told Al-Jazeera Net that, during the response operations in the shelters for the afflicted, he noticed more than 7 cases of loss of speech for children since the first day of the earthquake, indicating that the young are unable to express through speech, and they show the reaction in the decline of their abilities and skills.

The psychiatrist confirmed that the state of fear and panic in adults is reflected in their children, especially with watching the scenes of destruction and showing adults the state of loss, lack of safety and fear of life’s difficulties, to appear in the form of psychological disorders among young people.

Amouri stressed that some children's cases require medical intervention, while most of them need support services and psychological relief, amid the lack of cadres and weak expertise and capabilities in northwestern Syria, before the earthquake occurred.