RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Forty-two-year-old Sanaa al-Ali from al-Mashlab neighborhood in the city of Raqqa, northern Syria, fears her only child to be infected with cholera after news circulated about the spread of the pandemic in the region.
Al-Ali prepared her 10-year-old son for his first school day; she bought school supplies, and sent him to his school in worry.
As students started their new school year, the cities of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor keep recording new cases of cholera, something that left the residents of Raqqa deeply worried about their children.
In late August, the Education Board of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced that the 2022-2023 school year would start on September 18.
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated ISIS militarily there.
Al-Ali told North Press that it is the parents’ duty to take care of their children’s hygiene before sending them to school and after their return. She also said that it is crucial to raise the children’s awareness about cholera to increase prevention.
The residents of Raqqa are calling for all AANES health institutions to take effective and precautionary measures to prevent the spread of cholera among students.
On September 10, the AANES said that it has recorded several cholera cases in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, and called for implementing proactive measures to limit its spread.
Badi al-Bashir, 60, a resident of al-Thukna neighborhood in Raqqa city, believes that the risk of cholera transmission to children in schools “is very possible, since overcrowding exists and it provides a fertile ground for the spread of the disease among students.”
Al-Bashir told North Press, “Most schools have only one bathroom, which puts the students at higher risk to contract the disease. This raises the residents’ fears for their children when they are sent to school.”
Al-Bashir, a father of five children, called for the AANES in Raqqa to assume its responsibilities in treating water, taking precautionary measures, and raising awareness campaigns to limit the spread of cholera among students and the population in general.
Strict measures
Bassem al-Rabbah, head of the School Health Office of the AANES Education Committee in Raqqa, said that the committee has taken “strict” measures regarding cleaning and sterilizing schools before the start of the school year.
The Education Committee in Raqqa sterilized water tanks and classrooms in schools to prevent the spread of cholera, COVID-19 or any other disease among students, according to al-Rabbah.
The committee is “following a very strict health program” to prevent the spread of any infectious disease among students in schools, he added to North Press.
At the same time, the Education Committee coordinates with the Health Committee to keep monitoring the health situation in schools among students, the official said.
He continued, “The health Committee in Raqqa provides the Education Committee with sterilizers and other tools that they can use in schools to prevent the spread of diseases among children.”
Up to the date of making this report, the city of Raqqa has not recorded any cholera infection, but there were some cases announced by the AANES Health Board in the eastern countryside of the city.