A family fled war-torn Deir ez-Zor to have the birth of four twins in Raqqa
Raqqa – North-Press Agency
Ahmad Al-Hassan
“I’d like to thank the anonymous people who had helped me without revealing their identities,” said Afifah, the mother of the four twins.
In late 2018, Afifah had fled with her husband and their two children, and her husband’s family, consisting of an elderly woman and two disabled young men, from Deir ez-Zor countryside, which is controlled by Syrian government forces into the city Raqqa.
The family decided to move into Raqqa to live in a tent in order to find a stabilized living condition, as hundreds of Syrian families have found living in the governorate of Raqqa as a safe haven, away from the war machine that is raging in other areas of Syria.
Afifah says in an interview with North-Press, “We’ve moved to Raqqa for work and safety, my husband is wanted by the Syrian army and he is our only breadwinner”.
Afifah’s husband has only a few sheep, therefore, he works in all fields with a daily income that doesn’t exceed SYP 3000 (less than $6), something they are accustomed to as they organized their lives at this level, being the only producer in the family.
A few months after moving into Raqqa, Afifah gave birth to four twins, named Issa, Mousa, Ryan, and Bayan.
As the birth of four twins is very rare and requires special care during childbirth, Afifah says: “After the tests and diagnoses, I learned that I was pregnant with four children so I had to have a cesarean delivery.”
Concerning the expenses of the operation, Afifah says: “The supervising doctor helped me with the costs of the operation because my husband did not have the money”.
Khalaf al-Ahmad, Afifah’s husband buys milk for his four children because his wife cannot breastfeed them, as regarding how to secure their milk, Khalaf says “I work with a daily income of no more than SYP 3,000, and my children need more than one can of milk every day”.
As securing milk for four children is too much for Afifah’s husband to afford, because of their difficult financial situation and the high price of milk, the thing that forced Afifah to give one of her children to her mother to raise him instead of her, saying: “I gave one of the twins to my mother so I could take care of the rest of his brothers and save a little milk”.
The milk is not the only issue that makes Afifah suffer, the heat of the tent due to the high temperature of the weather, and the diseases of the children were more severe: “In fact a week never passes without visiting the doctor because of the children’s diseases, but he is a good man who does not ask for the price of diagnosing, I just have to pay for the medicine I buy,” says Afifah.
After the spread of this family’s news in the area where they live, many philanthropists went to help them, “there are people who give us milk constantly in addition to material aid without revealing anything about their identities,” she added.
Zahra al-Ismail, one of the employees of the Women’s Committee of the Civil Council in Raqqa, explained the actions taken by the committee towards this family by saying: “We have learned about this woman, so we’ve been working to provide as much as possible to help her and her children,” without clarifying what were those procedures.
It’s worth mentioning that this family’s situation is like dozens of other families who have left their homes and preferred to live in tents, escaping a war machine that never differentiated between young nor old people.