Inside the effort to help hundreds of kids orphaned by earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

Layla Hasso continues to think about the nine-year-old girl that rescue workers pulled from the rubble in northeastern Syria.

Hasso works for the Hurras Network, a Syrian child protection organization that has been working with first responders since the deadly earthquake earlier this month.

After the quake, he said a rescue worker saved the life of a little girl. After he was released, he attacked the person who helped him, beating him.

“He said, ‘Why [did] you pulled me out without a parent?'” Hasso told me As it happens hosted by Nil Köksal. “This is very heartbreaking.”

The girl is one of hundreds of children in Turkey and Syria who have been orphaned by the recent earthquake.

The exact number is difficult to determine. But the Turkish government told the Washington Post last week that the families of 263 rescued children remain missing. The country’s Ministry of Child Welfare did not respond to requests for an updated tally before the deadline.

In Syria, which has been fighting a civil war for 12 years, the numbers are harder to calculate.

Together with other groups, the Hurras Network – which provides assistance, shelter and psychological care to children in Syria’s Idlib province – has registered 65 cases of children who lost their parents in the earthquake so far. But the real number, Hasso said, is likely higher.

“Before the earthquake, every year we registered 100 cases,” Hasso said. “So you can imagine after the earthquake, how many children.”

Stress is toxic

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake, followed by a 7.5-magnitude tremor, struck southeastern Turkey on February 6, killing more than 46,000 people in the country and neighboring Syria. Then on Monday, when people started to catch their breath, two more earthquakes and several aftershocks.

“It’s quite traumatic, especially for children who are just starting to find self-esteem and it’s only been a few weeks,” said Save the Children’s Alex Saieh.

Saieh, the non-governmental organization’s head of humanitarian policy and advocacy, works in Gaziantep, Turkey, the epicenter of the first quake. He said the children there are “facing uncertainty.”

“Children separated from their families are at high risk of emotional and psychological abuse, abuse and exploitation,” he said.

The charity is working with local governments in Turkey and humanitarian groups in northwestern Syria to deliver aid in the form of temporary shelters, blankets, hygiene products, tents and mattresses.

“But what is really needed alongside this humanitarian aid is psychosocial support,” he said.

“Toxic stress is one of the most dangerous forms of stress, and it occurs when children are exposed to continuous or repeated stressful situations, which has been found … in Turkey for the past few weeks and in Syria for the last 12 years. “

He said his organization has created centers in affected areas “where kids can be kids again.”

“He has a place to just play around, take his mind off the situation. And we provide psychosocial support alongside him so he has space to express himself and process what he has done,” she said.

Connecting orphans with families

UNICEF, the United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children around the world, has also sent aid and an operation center for children to relax and play.

Many children have lost one or both parents, said Joe English, UNICEF’s emergency communications specialist who works in Gaziantep and is coordinating the agency’s response in northwestern Syria.

UNICEF’s first priority, he said, after providing immediate shelter and care, is to connect orphans with other family members.

“Our position is that, almost 100 percent of the time, it’s in the best interest of the child to be reunited with the extended family if they’ve lost a parent,” he said. “International adoption should not be considered immediately after a humanitarian crisis.”

The Hurras network also prioritizes connecting children to family members, Hasso said. But years of civil war have made this kind of work a logistical nightmare.

People have been forced to move again and again. Many people do not have identification. Sometimes the family is the only child left outside the country.

“It’s really frustrating here,” she said.

Babies born in the ruins find a home

However, there are some hard-fought family reunions in the country.

A baby born under the rubble of the rebel-held town of Jinderis, Syria, is now with his aunt and uncle, after his parents and siblings were killed in the disaster.

When first responders found the baby, he was still attached to his mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, who did not survive.

On Saturday, Hala’s aunt and uncle by marriage Khalil Al-Sawadi finally adopted their niece. She was named Afraa, after her mother.

“This girl means a lot to us because there is nothing left in her family except this baby,” Sawadi told Reuters.

Looking forward

But not every child is orphaned by this crisis, Hasso said. And it can be a struggle to find funding for ongoing care.

After a disaster like this, he said aid tends to be for acute needs, rather than long-term work to provide support for orphans.

“Usually [when people are] talk about help, same [are] just talk about sending tents and food,” he said. “But, really, this is not what they need.”

However, he said there needs to be a plan for the long term – like a child going back to school.

England from UNICEF agrees.

“These children, many of them, have suffered the disruption of two years of COVID. They have suffered the disruption of war. They have been displaced. And ultimately, it is this generation of children who will be the ones to rebuild this country,” he said.

“So if we don’t provide the education, if we don’t provide the tools, then we don’t provide the opportunity.”