Aleppo's northern countryside – North-Press Agency
Dejla Khalil
Next to his tent in the Barkhwadan camp in the village of Fafin in the northern countryside of Aleppo, 54-year-old Afrin IDP Rashid Muhammad waters his vegetables, reaping what he has sown, and cleaning the weeds that have grown beside them.
It is work that Muhammad and other IDPs are used to in the camps in the northern countryside of Aleppo, using a few meters next to their tents to grow varieties of plants such as beans, lettuce, eggplant, parsley, mint, onions, etc., with the aim of benefiting from them in light of high food and vegetable prices, which increased with the start of the lockdown and the advent of Ramadan.
Muhammad believes that many of the residents of the camp "feel comforted psychologically by planting the few meters next to their tents, relieving them of longing for the green areas of Afrin which they were forced to leave."
Self-sufficiency
Muhammad said that the small area helps him to secure his need for vegetables after he was unable to buy them from the market in light of the high prices, noting that the types he planted are sufficient for his family and his brother's family. "Before we were displaced from Afrin, we were used to cultivating large areas in our lands there, but I rely only on this small space here."
Asmahan Mustafa, an IDP from Afrin living in the Sardem camp near the village of Tal Soseen, planted squash, radish, and parsley, in addition to growing some roses.
"I used to see vegetables around me. I have not gotten used to living in a place without vegetables or roses. I did not leave any space around my tent free of vegetables and roses; I even used small boxes and plastic bags."
Longing
"My family knew about growing orchards and vegetables and I was helping my father with farming. I was growing all kinds of grains and vegetables," Asmahan said recalling the variety of plants she used to cultivate.
The production of these spaces was not limited to meeting the needs of the family. Some of the displaced were able to reap small returns from their cultivation by selling some surplus of their products.
More than 7,000 displaced people from the Afrin region live in five camps in the northern countryside of Aleppo (al-Awda, Barkhwadan, Sardam, al-Shahba, and Afrin), according to the latest statistics from the Social Affairs Authority in the Autonomous Administration of the Afrin region, which works in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
An income
47-year-old Afrin IDP Ibrahim Ali, who also lives in the Sardam camp, planted vegetables and flower beds in bags next to his tent and his neighbor's tent in order to sell them to the IDPs. "I planted 500 seedlings of roses and vegetables and sold them at symbolic prices which does not exceed 200 Syrian pounds. I distribute them for free to the people who do not have money," he said.