HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Yusra al-Abdullah covers her nine-year-old daughter, who has a bad cold, with thin blankets and wraps her legs in a jacket in an attempt to keep her warm, but for no vain, especially that the classroom, where the family lives, is so cold.
As the young child is lying on a foam mattress next to a heater, the 36-year-old mother al-Abdullah says she cannot buy heating oil on the black market, and so far neither organizations nor the Autonomous Administration in the North and East of Syria (AANES) have provided them with heating.
The IDP woman, who hails from the city of Sere Kanye (Ras al-Ain), has been living at al-Baath School in the Aziziyah neighborhood in the city of Hasakah, northeast Syria, with her five children and her husband for about four years.
While narrating the displacement sufferings, her words reflect the hardship of making ends meet for her family.
“We cover ourselves with blankets to keep warm even the blankets are thin and do not provide us with warmth,” she said, adding that she hopes that rain will not come “so that we do not get cold.”
IDPs from Sere Kaniye and the town of Abu Rasin (Zirgan) north of Hasakah, are accommodated in dozens of schools in Hasakah. They struggle in light of lack of winter necessities, particularly heating oil.
Turkish “Peace Spring” military operation in October 2019 resulted in the occupation of the two cities of Tel Abyad, north of Raqqa, and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), north of Hasakah, displacing about 300.000 original inhabitants to other areas and forcing some to live in camps and shelters in schools deploy in northeast Syria.
Additionally, residents of areas situated on frontlines between Turkish forces and their affiliated armed Syrian opposition factions, also known a Syrian National Army (SNA) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were forced to flee their areas and resorted to camps and schools due to successive shelling.
The IDPs sit in the sunlight in school yards because they are unable to provide their families with means of heating and winter supplies due to their difficult living conditions, but they cannot do so when it rains.
“Abdullah” family sometimes buys two liters of heating oil to run the heater for several hours; however, the family members spend the remaining days wrapped in blankets, which does not work in low temperatures in the evening.
In light of this situation, Abdullah’s family and those facing similar suffering hope that organizations operating in the region offer them assistance, winter supplies and fuel to face the cold weather.
44-year-old Samya al-Hamad appears to be in worse condition than Abdullah at the same school because the classroom, where her family of eight resides, lacks a fireplace, and they cannot buy one at their own expense.
Al-Hamad says cold weather has worsened their suffering at a time when services provided at schools are essentially nonexistent.
She added, “I have six children and we do not have heater yet the room is very cold at night and in the morning.”
About a year and a half ago, all organizations and associations operating in northeastern Syria, except for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and Mar Ephrem Association, stopped providing assistance to the IDPs in schools, which has aggravated their suffering.
Last year, an international organization provided IDPs in schools with heating oil, but after New Year’s Eve, some were forced to buy amounts on the black market, while those with dire economic conditions spent winter, enduring cold weather.
37-year-old Ali Hamira, who is an IDP from Sere Kaniye residing with his family in the Hamed Mahfouz School in Hasakah, says that the aid and services offered to them are very scarce.
Hamira, like other IDPs, does not have a heater and cannot afford one, according to him.
He said, “Winter is over. When will they distribute heating oil?”