Impossible situation for parents of disabled child in Raqqa IDP camp
Hatash makeshift camp in north of Raqqa, northern Syria – North Press
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Tewasif moves her sick son from inside the tent to the outside. Sometimes she puts him in his younger siblings’ care as she is forced to leave the camp to work to help her husband with the family’s expenses.
Other times, when her son starts crying due to his nerve damage, she does not dare leave the house.
Tewasif Muhammad al-Saleh, 36, an IDP from Hama Governorate, central Syria, living in the Hatash camp for the IDPs in north of Raqqa, northern Syria, has a ten-year-old son called Muhammad who suffers from brain atrophy.
Muhammad cannot control his behavior. He cannot move or talk, but sometimes smiles at his siblings when they play with him; his speech is unintelligible. His mother, however, knows what he wants and understands him.
Al-Saleh said she looks into his eyes and understands what he needs. Those needs urge her to work, as Muhammad’s condition requires a lot of expenses to care for and treat him. “We can’t afford his treatment,” she said.
The child’s condition adds more an additional burden to the family’s suffering, such as the dire circumstances the IDPs experience in Raqqa’s makeshift camps, the lack of support, the high prices, and the harsh winter months.
The mother does not know how to secure the money needed to treat her sick son while also feeding her big family. Her son’s treatment requires a daily 25.000 SYP ($3.70) in medication and diapers – at least before medicine prices increased.
On January 17, the Syrian Ministry of Health increased the prices of most drug types by up to 80 percent.
Al-Saleh works on a farm for a low salary. She hopes that an NGO might take care of the expenses for his son’s treatment.
Her hourly wage is 1.000 SYP ($0.15); her family needs at least 15.000 SYP ($2.20) to survive (her son’s medical expenses excluded). She and her husband cannot keep up with expenses.
Most IDPs in makeshift camps work in the farmlands near the camps, but it is a seasonal job and not always available.
The NGOs that operate in the region did not assist her disabled child even though “he has the papers they always ask for every time they visit the camp, but they don’t help us,” she added.
The mother finds herself helpless. She grows more desperate every time she looks at him, knowing she cannot do anything to help him.
All they have is a worn-out tent that cannot protect them from the winter’s cold or the summer’s heat; most nights, they sleep on empty bellies.
She tries to secure some of her son’s needs, but low wages and the collapsing Syrian pound make things harder. She has asked help from charitable people and humanitarian organizations. But to no avail.
Apart from Muhammad, six other disabled people live in Hetash camp, sharing nearly identical fates.