by Valentina Bidone*
Il earthquake in Syria and Turkey of last February 6 is one of the most natural disasters serious of our times. We have exceeded 40,000 victims and a very high number of injured, figures which unfortunately seem destined to grow as the bodies are pulled from the rubble and the damage count continues. The material and infrastructure losses are enormous. Oxfam was already working in the two countries and witnesses the shock that the population is experiencing. While a huge response machine has been launched in Turkey, things are different in Syria with a population exhausted by a well-preceding crisis, which until a week ago was forgotten and which today more than ever it is good to remember by trying, even for a moment, to identify with what the Syrian people have gone through and are experiencing.
The horror of war in your daily life
Imagine that in your country you start a conflict and then think that year after year not only does it not end, but it worsens causing hundreds of thousands of victims. Every day you witness the destruction of your community, of your surroundings. You no longer have a job, your country is literally crumbling around you. One day even the oven where you went to get bread for your family is destroyed by the bombing.
Stay or flee
Faced with all this horror millions fled for get to safety still risking their lives from North Africa via the Mediterranean or the Balkan route. However, many remained and faced an unprecedented economic crisis, which caused a surge in food prices. They are left in a country where electricity is a luxury and there is no fuel for it warm up. Where river levels have dropped and crops are increasingly at risk; where not only has the Covid-19 pandemic arisen, but since September 2022 acholera epidemic. Well, to try to understand what we are writing about, ask yourself now what would you have done: would you have stayed or left?
Rebuilding the country one piece at a time, then the earthquake
Year after year – next March 15th they will be 12 years since the start of the war – as new crises added to existing crises, without a moment’s rest and without losing hope, organizations like Oxfam working in the country carried out projects to alleviate the suffering of the population and to try to rebuild a possible future together with people. Considering his intervention as important even if partial, given the enormous needs in a country where even before the earthquake more than 15 million people owed their survival to humanitarian aid.
Then the earthquake and in one night everything became desperately complicated. Luckily no casualties among our operators. We leave for the affected areas, we decide how to adapt the projects already underway. We are looking for the funds and human resources necessary to continue help the population also in the rest of Syria, given that 70% of the population here lives below the poverty line. And, of course, at the same time we work tirelessly for rescue and contain the new as much as possible humanitarian crisis which was unleashed on Aleppo, Hama, Idleb, Latakia and Tartous.
As of this writing, Oxfam is coordinating with other organizations present such as the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent to join efforts and ensure the survival of the more than 4 million people affected by the earthquake. Our operators in Aleppo in these hours are at work to bring basic necessities, especially clean water and sanitary kits for displaced persons. We are working on testing the safety of hundreds of buildings and repair the water infrastructure that serves thousands of the most affected people, with the aim of rescuing 300,000.
It takes everything
I needs they are many and very different. There are common needs for all: it’s winter, there is a lack of warm clothes such as jackets and coats, blankets and then milk and diapers for children, personal hygiene products such as soap, towels and sanitary pads for women and girls. Lacks drinking water in adequate amounts, to try to curb the risk of a spike in the ongoing cholera epidemic. There is a lack of medicines for the chronically ill, mattresses, lanterns, psychological support for the survived.
Many people have also lost their documents and there are children who unfortunately are left alone. And then i collective shelters they are still not enough, people are still on the street, some are continuing to dig with the hope of saving those who have remained under the rubble, while it is raining and it is really cold. You can’t do everything, but right now every contribution is fundamentalhowever small. To do this, just go to
*humanitarian coordinator of Oxfam Italy in Syria