The first moments were terrible, I woke up to a terrifying vibration and sound, I held on to my children and wife who gathered around me, the vibration began to increase and the sound became stronger, I hugged my family tightly and felt that it was the end, moments passed as if hours, until it calmed down and there was a frightening calm.
The journalist activist “Mohammed Khudair”, who started his speech with those words, did not realize the magnitude of the disaster in the first moments, and that it was not an ordinary morning. People woke up to a terrifying nightmare. Many children, women and men suddenly found themselves among the rubble, as a result of the terrifying earthquake that struck northern Syria and southern Turkey on the sixth of February, around 4:30 am.
“Khudair” held his breath with his family, picked up his phone, and started browsing social media. “I was shocked by the horror of what I saw, the destruction, distress calls, and screams that began to rise everywhere. I left my wife and children in a safe house, so they cannot be left outside in the rain and frost of winter, and I quickly headed to the village of Ramadiah. Near the city of Darkoush. The scale of the disaster is great, screams and dust suffocate the place.”
From the first moment, he started documenting everything, filming it, and sending it to the rescue teams and humanitarian organizations. Sometimes he would stop filming and put his camera aside in an attempt to rescue people as He couldn’t continue filming with the sounds of distress heard among the rubble. In between all of this, nearby voices were heard calling out that dozens of houses in the town of Azmarin (a town north of the city of Darkoush) had been destroyed, and many families were under the rubble and in need of urgent help, so “Muhammad” left the place immediately after he sent the rescue teams and organizations pictures and details of his current location, and moved for Azmarin, there is a greater need, and no one knows about it except for several persons in the vicinity of the place.
“I arrived at Azmarin.. I had a terrible feeling, I felt helpless and afraid, I could not control myself and stop the tears, the smell of death everywhere, panic, destruction and screams, women digging with their hands and looking for their children, a horrible scene, I wiped my tears because people here do not want feelings now and they will not help them, What people need from me now is work… work and to transfer their voice to the rescue teams and everyone who can help, and we began to help, document everything that is happening, convey the needs, and correspond with the rescue teams and humanitarian organizations.
From five o’clock in the morning, Khudair is in constant contact with all parties that can contribute to rescue and assistance. He sends pictures and videos and appeals to all parties. Some of them responded to the call and rushed to provide what he could, and some of them shared these pictures and videos to reach all followers and those interested to participate in mitigating the effects of this horrible disaster..
Everyone is working with hands, simple equipment, and machines that are not intended for research, trying to reach the source of the sounds and save their loved ones, but a strong aftershock occurred at about one and a half hours. “Here I was seized with great fear, my family and children are still at home. I left everything and rushed home. My heart almost broke out before I reached them. Thank God, I found them fine, but fear controlled them. I treated them well and said goodbye to them and went back to work. The families who are under the rubble now are also my children and my family.” I will not leave them and I will do what I can to save them.
Khudair succeeded in shedding light from the beginning on the disaster that took place in northern Syria after it was somewhat marginalized, and he contributed to saving many people and helping those affected by sending pictures and documents and appealing to organizations and associations from the first moment. Rescue teams and many volunteers responded, and organizations and associations responded to his calls, established shelters, provided foodstuffs and supply baskets, and supported rescue teams. He continues his work day and night, trying with all his power to provide assistance to people and relieve their pain.
Khudair lived the suffering of people through his presence with them in the field, in the cold of winter and the heat of summer, in the camps and on the roads of displacement, he lived it all in all its details from the first moment by working with us within the team of the media department at the Ataa Association for Humanitarian Relief. He tried with his colleagues throughout the previous period to convey the suffering of people and work to alleviate their pain by all possible means, in coordination with all other departments that contribute and exert all their energies and capabilities to alleviate the suffering of the affected families and limit their suffering.
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