A terrible scene, buildings collapsing, panic and screaming, women carrying their children and running, people jumping out of windows and people filling the streets with their bare feet. This is what happened at dawn on Monday, February 6 of this year, as a result of the earthquake that hit northern Syria and southern Turkey.
Five days have passed since the disaster occurred, and hundreds of families are still under the rubble. Rescue teams are trying hard from the first day to remove the rubble and remove those trapped under it. However, the scale of the disaster exceeds all the capabilities of the teams and local humanitarian organizations. The number of completely destroyed houses exceeded 400, and the partially collapsed ones are more than 1300, in addition to thousands of cracked homes that must be evacuated immediately.
Our teams were mobilized in all offices of Ataa Association for Humanitarian Relief from the first moment, along with the civil defense teams and rescue volunteers, to contribute to rescuing thousands of people trapped under the rubble, and to support the working teams with all available supplies. Meals and fuel were distributed to the civil defense teams, and many shelter centers were established in the different areas of northern Syria and equipping them with everything necessary, with the aim of evacuating the cracked houses and serving as a temporary shelter for those who lost their homes or were cracked.
Ataa clinic received many injuries from the first hours, and mobile clinics went to the places of destruction and shelters, to provide first aid, medical advice and medicines to those who are being evacuated, and to residents of shelters to alleviate their suffering and contribute to saving their lives. Medical materials and blankets were also provided to some hospitals in northern Syria.
Our teams continued their activities by transporting affected families to shelters, distributing humanitarian baskets, food aid and meals to those affected by the earthquake in shelter centers, in addition to distributing blankets, mattresses, heaters and heating materials. The humanitarian catastrophe as a result of the earthquake was accompanied by a very cold air depression in various regions of Syria, which increased the suffering of many families. as a result of homelessness.
Rescue teams and humanitarian organizations are trying hard, with all their staff and capabilities, to rescue the stranded, help the affected, and shelter the displaced who have slept on the ground. However, they stand helpless in the face of the horror of the catastrophe. The capabilities are limited and the scale of the catastrophe is too great for countries to handle, and it takes days to be able to remove the rubble and rescue the stranded.
ATAA Association and many humanitarian organizations and institutions sent a distress call to all humanitarian components, Arab and international, to support the northern Syria in the disaster it was exposed to, and declared that the north is a disaster area. They launched a donation campaign in the name of #SOLIDARITY for the northern Syria, but the response is still limited and people are still out in the open with the severe cold wave passing through Syria, in addition to the presence of hundreds under the rubble.
With the passing of days, the situation becomes more complicated, thousands of families are homeless as a result of the collapse of their homes, and hundreds of families have lost everything, their families, children, homes, money and everything they own. Massive damage to the infrastructure, water and sewage networks stopped functioning in some areas, in addition to the recent flooding of the Orontes River as a result of the earthquake, which left behind a new catastrophe that hundreds of families were displaced from their homes.
The number of those who lost their lives is increasing at a very fast pace, as according to the latest statistics of the Syrian Civil Defense, their number has exceeded 2166 deaths, and more than 2950 injured, with non-final statistics. There are still hundreds of families under the rubble, as aid operations continue with limited supplies amid difficult conditions in different regions in northern Syria.
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زلزال سوريا – مستمرون بالعمل بكل إمكانياتنا المتاحة لتخفيف آثار هذه الكارثة
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