Northern Aleppo – North-Press Agency
Dejla Khalil
People with special needs in the camps and semi-destroyed houses in the northern countryside of Aleppo suffer from great difficulties due to the lack of medicines, specialist doctors, and physical treatment centers, amid complete absence of support from health organizations.
The 13-year-old Abdulrahman Mawas, from Afrin region, like hundreds of his peers, lives in difficult conditions in a camp due to his physical disability.
According to the statistics of the Kurdish Red Crescent, Afrin branch, the number of people with special needs in the IDP camps of the people of Afrin and the villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo is about 560 cases, varying from physical disability, poor eyesight, deafness and hearing impairment, to amputation of the limbs.
Some of Afrin’s IDPs live in partially destroyed houses, distributed in 42 villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo, where the houses lack windows, doors, and sewage networks, which make them vulnerable to cold wind, while the rest of them live in five camps (Sardam, Berxwedan, Shahba, Afrin, and al-Aouda).
Donia Mahmoud, an IDP from Afrin, who lives in Berxwedan camp in the northern countryside of Aleppo with her son Abdulrahman, who suffers from brain atrophy as a result of a medical error, which led to the lack of oxygenation in the delivery process. “In the displacement and camps, it is difficult to even for healthy people to resist the living conditions, how then if they have special needs?” She asked.
“Our situation wasn't much better in Afrin, but we were fine, and there were doctors and medicines. While here in the camps, my son's situation is getting worse," Donia said in a sorrowful tone.
The Turkish forces and the affiliated armed opposition groups took control over Afrin region on the 18th of March, 2018, causing the displacement of more than 300,000 to the northern countryside of Aleppo.
Sakina Arabo, a member of the Kurdish Red Crescent, said that regardless of the weak capabilities, the center lacks doctors, medicines and physiotherapists, "so we cannot provide the necessities for people with special needs such as wheelchairs, nutritional supplements, and hearing aids," she said. Arabo called on the medical and humanitarian organizations to provide aid, "so that we can alleviate the suffering of this group of people who struggle in the camps," she noted.
The Office of Organization Affairs in the northern countryside of Aleppo provided statistics regarding the number of people with special needs to the relevant associations and organizations. However, "most of the organizations did not respond properly and some organizations provided limited assistance that did not cover the needs of all patients in the region, while some others made promises that they did
not keep," according to Souad Ayoubi, the member of the Office of Organization Affairs.