RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – “We have nothing.” Though he cannot see, the absence of life’s bare necessities is obvious even to Ali, an IDP in Jarwa camp, 35km north of Raqqa, north Syria.
Ali al-Abdullah, 45, is blind and heads a family of seven; his mother also lives with the family. He faces difficulty in supporting them as economic prospects in the region worsen for locals and IDPs alike.
Al-Abdullah says they get little humanitarian assistance, heating oil and bread. “The tents are ramshackle and no longer protect us from the cold weather,” he adds.
He says they burn plastic bags and shoes for heating as they have yet to receive their share of heating oil.
“It is too cold. Our children are falling sick due to the inhalation of smoke produced by burning plastic. We demand that organizations support the camp in all aspects,” al-Abdullah said.
Jarwa camp houses 448 families, including 2.225 children, 1.345 women, and 14 people with disabilities. Most of them are displaced people from the Hama region, currently under the control of the Syrian government.
Fatma al-Muhammad, 39, shares the same concerns. “We have very little food, enough to keep us from dying. We are dying from the cold weather.”
The IDPs receive only small amounts of fuel and bread.
She noted that they no longer have wood, which they used as a substitute for heating oil. The farmers in nearby villages stopped giving them wood and stored it, as they are suffering from a lack of heating oil themselves.
Many IDPs in makeshift camps depend on wood, plastic, and shoes as substitutes for heating oil.
They cause both children and adults to contract asthma and other pulmonary diseases.
“They give us aid for a month and then nothing for five to six months,” al-Muhammad says.
The camp resident added that they get very little cleaning supplies and cannot buy them themselves. Bad hygienic conditions and the absence of vaccines for children contributed to the spread of skin diseases, lice, and scabies among Jarwa’s children.
“There is no support for our camp; people are exhausted, we lack everything,” she concluded.
The makeshift camps of Raqqa, 58 in all, suffer from a lack of support after humanitarian organizations withdrew. Officials in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) stressed the necessity of supporting these camps.
Umm Ahmad, 48, told North Press, “we are in a terrible condition.” Even in the winter months, IDPs live in worn-out tents. Some even sewed together pieces of fabric and sacks to build a tent.
Umm Ahmad was handed a further blow when her husband fell sick and she had to take him to the hospital.
The current winter season in Syria is marked by unusually cold, rainy, and foggy days. IDPs suffer the most from these conditions, as they lack even the most basic protections against the climate.