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IDLIB: Aya al-Sudani, a cheerful toddler with a toothy smile, will celebrate her first birthday on Tuesday, but there will be no cake or gifts to celebrate. This day is also a dark memory.
On February 6, 2023, a massive earthquake struck Syria and Turkiye, and a baby girl was pulled alive from the rubble of her parents’ home in the town of Zinderis in northern Syria. She was still connected to her deceased mother by an umbilical cord.
Hospital staff named the girl “Baby Aya” (Aya means “sign from God” in Arabic), but her current guardians have named her Afraa in memory of her mother. Ta. The newborn was the only survivor in her immediate family after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 59,000 people.
She was one of hundreds of children orphaned or separated from their families by the disaster, in addition to many more who lost their parents in the nearly 13-year civil war.
Some 542 children were found “unaccompanied and separated” across Syria after the earthquake, said Eva Hines, a spokeswoman for the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF). Some were eventually reunited with her parents, while “some were placed with her next of kin or relatives, and some were supported with alternative care,” she said.

Local authorities in northwestern Syria say at least 537 children were left orphaned in the earthquake, but only 61 of these are recorded as having lost both their mother and father. The actual number is probably much higher.
A year later, those children are beginning to adapt to their new reality, with most now living with relatives, but a few being placed in foster care or orphanages.
For many of them, losing their parents in the earthquake was just the latest in a series of tragedies.
“Almost everyone in Syria has a personal connection to the loss of conflict at this point,” said Kathryn Achilles, a spokeswoman for Save the Children’s Syria office. “It’s not something that kids have to learn, having to deal with loss, having to deal with displacement, having to deal with losing family and community.”
Yasmin Shahud was 11 years old when the earthquake struck. Her family had taken refuge in the town of al-Manas in northwestern Syria, about 70 kilometers from her hometown of Maarat al-Numan. Despite the war, she remembers carefree times playing and laughing for hours with her brothers after school.
On February 6, her home collapsed and she was buried under the rubble for 20 hours before being pulled out by rescue workers. Yasmin’s arm and leg were shattered and she required a series of surgeries. For her first few weeks, no one had the courage to tell the seriously injured girl that her family was dead.
“When I arrived at the hospital, Yasmin was in a state of shock and did not understand what had happened,” said Ghaisa Al, a social worker with the Syrian American Physicians Association who has been following her case.・Mr. Ibrahim said.
The girl stayed at the orphanage for several months because it was close to the hospital and required intensive physical therapy. Currently, she lives with her grandfather, uncle, aunt, and cousins, and thanks to their help, she said, “I was able to overcome many difficult steps.” She is back to school, although she still has difficulty walking. She eventually wants to become a pharmacist.
The first period was “very, very difficult,” Yasmin said, but “Thank God I’m getting better.”
Eight-year-old Hanaa Schleif lives with her grandfather and uncle’s family in the town of Harem in Idlib province. She likes playing with her cousin’s baby, who was born after the earthquake. After her death, she was named Mahmoud at Hanaa’s request. her father.
Hanaa’s parents and sister died in the earthquake, and she was trapped under rubble for 33 hours. Initially, her doctors thought her hand would have to be amputated.
“She asked about her family, her mother and father, and little by little we told her that they had gone to heaven,” said her uncle, Ali Shrief.
After the earthquake, some children were “found on the streets, in garbage dumps, in front of mosques or in abandoned fields,” said the founder of Child House, a non-governmental organization that runs two evacuation centers. Alaeddin Janid said. orphans and abandoned children. The organization works to reunite children with their families or place them in foster care facilities. Islam generally does not allow legal adoption, but encourages providing long-term guardianship to orphans.
The center was severely damaged by the earthquake, and although the staff and children managed to evacuate safely, another space must be immediately secured to accommodate the large number of children orphaned or separated from their families in the earthquake. was there. Some shelter workers buried their loved ones and then returned to work.
The shelter, which previously could accommodate only 35 people, soon grew to care for about 100 children.
“About 70 per cent of them were able to find relatives, but in 30 per cent, the entire family had died or relatives had abandoned the child,” Janid said.
In such cases, the group sought to refer children to vetted foster homes, he said. “An orphanage is not a good place for any child to start life.”
Despite the tragedy of her birth, Baby Aya, or Afraa, was one of the lucky ones. With no memory of her lost family, the only parents she knows are her aunt, who took her in, and her aunt’s husband. Their four daughters and two sons became like sisters and brothers to her.
The family has an apartment in Zinderis, where they stay during the day, but at night they crowd into tents in one of the area’s concentration camps, fearing that another earthquake will topple on their heads. Still afraid of sleeping in concrete buildings. Since the earthquake, there has been a lack of jobs and schools in the area.
The baby’s uncle and guardian, Khalil al-Sawadi, hopes she will have the chance to study, possibly outside Syria, and “get the best degree, not like my children.” he said.
Her family plans not to celebrate her first birthday because “this day is a painful memory.” But he said, “Thanks to her presence in Afraa, I also had hope for her. When she grows up, I plan to tell her about these memories.”