QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Anoud al-Saleh feels sorry about the future of her children in Sere Kaniye IDP camp, east of Syria’s Hasakah governorate, after being displaced from the city of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), northeastern Syria.
“My children have an unknown future here in the camp,” she said.
In October 2019, Turkish forces along with Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), occupied Sere Kaniye after a military operation named Peace Spring, and forcibly displaced about 300,000 of the city’s original inhabitants.
Since then, most of the displaced people have been sheltered in the IDP camps of Sere Kaniye, Washokani and Newroz, while others are sheltered at a number of schools in the city of Hasakah. Other IDPs spread to other cities of northeast Syria.
Both Sere Kaniye and Washokani camps in Hasakah governorate house about 29,000 people, including 13,000 children from Sere Kaniye and its countryside.
Children of those forcibly displaced families in Sere Kaniye camp are living in substandard conditions and lack access to basic healthcare and education.
“Our children are the victims of the war; they live in a camp that lacks the basic living conditions,” al-Saleh told North Press.
She believes that her children’s future will be better if they return to their city, as they used to live a dignified life in which basic services such as medicine and education were available.
Al-Saleh and her seven children live in one tent. She hopes to return to her normal life, and re-enroll her children in schools.
In Sere Kaniye and Washokani camps, approximately 7,000 school-age children face many barriers to receiving education due to the difficult and unstable circumstances, according to the educational committee in Sere Kaniye camp.
Unstable circumstances for education
There are many challenges that face educational process amidst conflict and displacement.
Badran Ayoub, an IDP of Sere Kaniye and a father of 13, described his living conditions as very bad. He explained that there are no job opportunities so he cannot provide the simplest necessities of life for his children, asking “How will I be able to send them to school?”
Muhammad Hajo, the official spokesman for the education committee in Sere Kaniye camp, said that the educational atmosphere is inappropriate. He explained that there is no space for the children to learn because they live in overcrowded tents which are used as a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen at the same time.
Nermin Salama, an IDP from Sere Kaniye who lives in Newroz camp, said that her children “are taught in an overcrowded tent which has been prepared to be a school, but the children do not receive the required education.”
Newroz camp, which is located in Derik countryside, houses nearly 3,000 children.
Salama, a mother of seven, hopes that her daughters will be able to get a university degree, saying, “I want my daughters to live a normal life outside the camp.”
The situation of Afrin’s IDPs in Shahba region, north of Aleppo governorate, is no better than those in Sere Kaniye and Newroz.
Fatima Khello, an IDP of Sardam camp in the northern countryside of Aleppo, complains that in the absence of job opportunities and support of relief organizations, her four children do not have pens and notebooks.
Khello was uprooted from her land in Jindires district in Afrin countryside, north of Aleppo, after SNA factions, backed by Turkey seized Afrin in March of 2018.
Children work instead of attending school
Amina Ibrahim, an IDP of Abu Rasin (Zarkan) north of Hasakah, did not buy clothes for her five children due to her poor living conditions and lack of assistance from the concerned organizations.
Her 12-year-old son works in a carpentry workshop to meet some of his family’s main necessities and to help his father who is a daily worker for 1,000 SYP per day.
The mother told North Press that the low wages they receive did not cover their daily needs due to the high prices that are why her husband sends their child to work instead of school.
Ibrahim said her children refuse to go to school because they do not have the appropriate clothes and that they feel shy, as the other children’s outfits are better than theirs.
Common infectious diseases
In the internationally marginalized camps in the areas held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), the services in different sectors are limited to some local organizations operating in the region, which provide support according to their available capabilities.
In most of these camps diseases spread due to the difficult situation that the IDPs are living in, and the medical organizations operating there are facing difficulties in providing the full health care to those people.
Khalil Suleiman, an official of the Kurdish Red Crescent medical post team in Sere Kaniye camp, said that the reason behind the limited services in their medical points is due to the lack of support provided to them by some international organizations.
Scabies, leishmaniasis, bacterial and viral infections are common in the camp due to lack of health awareness, lack of attention to personal hygiene, and lack of adequate nutrition, Suleiman noted.
Adults can withstand the fluctuations of weather factors, unlike children, who suffer from many diseases, especially in summer, according to residents in the camp.
Aysha Ibrahim, a displaced person from Sere Kaniye, who lives in Newroz camp, says that her 5-year-old son suffers from asthma attacks, as his condition worsens due to the unhealthy environment in the camp.
The number of children suffering from chronic diseases is 378, and the number of disabled children is 235, according to Nadim Omar, the relations officer in Newroz camp.
“My son’s condition is getting worse because of the dirt in the camp,” the mother of seven said.
She explained that during winter most children at his age are sick with colds and bronchitis due to the cold weather and water leaking into the tents.
Not all medicines are available in the Kurdish Red Crescent clinics, while the overcrowding and shared bathrooms play a key role in spreading infections among children, according to Newroz camp’s management.