Poverty and lack of services in eastern Hama countryside

The villages and towns in eastern and northeastern Hama countryside suffer a lack of basic services and the destruction of infrastructure after the defeat of the Islamic State group (IS) two years ago, yet people returned after a long time of displacement to various parts of the country.
New batches of residents have returned their homes and farms from different displacement areas, especially Idlib, via Abu al-Duhur crossing, which was opened by the Syrian government under Russian auspices between areas controlled by the armed opposition groups in Idlib and the ones held by the Syrian government.

Return
The return of the people to their towns and villages has contributed to the revival of life despite the semi-acceptable conditions, due to the fluctuations which resulted from the distribution of forces there, where they were initially under the control of HTS (formerly al-Nusra front) and then under the control of the Islamic State group (IS), who forcibly imposed its radical laws.
In the villages and towns of Hawa, Um Muwailat, Hamra and Abu Samra of eastern and northeastern Hama countryside, North-Press reported the residents’ situations, of whom the most fled to the Syrian government-controlled areas of Homs and Hama and others fled to the armed opposition-held areas in Idlib, while others crossed the borders into Turkey then to Europe.
Muhammad al-Saleh from Hawa town has told North-Press: “ISIS acts, retributions, indiscriminate killings, and ready-made charges which they were unfairly condemning the people of, even on minor matters, have led many of our people to escape these areas, so my family and I went to Homs through smuggling routes.”

Return is better
Despite the economic decline in the area and the small population, which depends on rain fed agriculture and grazing livestock, Saleh said regarding his return to the village: “Although most of my property was destroyed, especially livestock and barns, which was the only source of my income, I returned to my village to start again.”
Muhammad al-Mousa, a resident of Hamra village in the eastern Hama countryside, said that he is happy to return and that their life became more stable and they will rebuild their villages and towns.
“It is true that we face difficulties in living, but it is still more merciful than the conditions that we were living in with its horrific details during the control of ISIS.” He added.

Medical services
Services in these areas are limited to medical ones, where health centers and mobile medical teams work to provide services to various areas and villages even the small and remote ones, while other services are almost non-existent, as water and power stations are destroyed, and road network is in a poor state.
Dr. Mousa Saleh says that ” the priority is to spreading health awareness and giving vaccines to children.”
He pointed out that the countryside has been without any health or medical care for years, which contributed to the spread of some epidemics and diseases that they are working to treat and prevent.
In light of the deteriorating living conditions, the people of the rural areas of eastern and northeastern Hama continue their life in areas that had defeated the war to live after that in poor living conditions waiting for better future to bring back the basic services of life.