Found by miracle under the rubble of a building destroyed by the deadly earthquake of February 6, 2023 in north-west Syria, little Afraa blows out her first candle, taken in by her loved ones like many orphans.
She was discovered a few hours after her birth, still connected by the umbilical cord to her mother who had been killed, like her father and brothers and sisters, in the collapse of their building.
Their town of Jandairis, close to the Turkish border, was among the most affected by the earthquake which left at least 6,000 dead in Syria and more than 53,000 in Turkey.
The little miracle had been taken in by her uncle by marriage, Khalil Sawadi, who named her Afraa, after her mother.
“I have seven children, and with Afraa, there are eight,” this 35-year-old man told AFP: “I named her Afraa, to perpetuate her mother’s name and so that she doesn’t forget not his family.”
Khalil Sawadi, also the cousin of the girl’s father, tenderly rocks Afraa, as well as his biological daughter, Aataa, born a few days earlier. “My wife is breastfeeding the two babies, who are like twins,” he assures.
“When she started to say her first words, she called me dad, and calls her aunt mom,” he confides with emotion.
The man, a displaced person who fled eastern Syria and has no permanent job, says he bears a heavy responsibility in raising Afraa.
“I hope that she will obtain the best diplomas in the future and that she will be better than my children,” he assures.
In their house, Khalil Sawadi’s daughters play with the little girl with rosy cheeks, wrapped in winter clothes, and who begins to crawl. They put her in a swing and take turns pushing her.
“Life has stopped”
In Jandairis, under the control of competing pro-Turkish Syrian factions, the earthquake left serious after-effects, with a large number of collapsed buildings not having been rebuilt.
Hundreds of affected families are still living in makeshift tents, and the luckiest have been relocated to permanent displacement camps.
According to the UN, around 265,000 people have lost their homes in rebel-held areas of northern and northwest Syria, with some 43,000 still living in shelters.
The majority of the population of these rebel zones is already made up of displaced people who have fled different regions of their country, fragmented by the war which broke out in 2011 and left more than half a million dead.
Hamza al-Ahmed, 15, walks on crutches through the alleys of Jandairis, where he now lives with his older married brother.
“I lost my mother, my father and four of my brothers and sisters” during the earthquake, he told AFP: “I stayed 35 hours under the rubble, our building collapsed and it Nothing is left of it.”
Hamza had to have his leg amputated and is trying to get used to his prosthesis. His arm was also crushed, but he cannot afford medical treatment.
“For me, the anniversary of the earthquake […] It’s the day of separation. I feel like life stopped that day, we lost everything dear to us,” the teenager said.
“Life without parents is hard”
“Life without parents is hard, but it continues,” he adds, watching children play football: “I dream of recovering and being able to stand on my feet again.”
During the terrible night of February 6, Yasmine al-Cham, now ten years old, lost her father, her pregnant mother and her three brothers and sisters including her twin. She herself miraculously survived after remaining under the rubble for more than 18 hours.
“I was sleeping when the earthquake happened […]my older brother carried me and ran to the front door, which fell on him,” she said.
Most of all, he misses his twin sister. “We spent our time together, we were in the same class, we played together,” says the little girl who loves to draw.
The little girl was taken in by her grandmother Samira al-Yassine, 62, who lost 47 of her loved ones, including her husband and son, in the collapse of their building.
“We lost our whole family. Only a few survived. The earthquake destroyed us,” laments this displaced woman from central Syria.