idlib, syria – In the northern countryside of Idlib, at the foot of the Orontes River, lies the village of Al Hamziyah, once known for its lush, fertile land.
Now, as the sun sets each day, it becomes a refugee camp for villagers.
One year has passed since the February 6 earthquake, but the effects of the earthquake are still clearly visible, with cracked walls appearing on houses in the village and fields collapsing under the weight of the flooding water.
And near every house there are tents for families who are too scared to sleep inside.
I can't live there anymore
“I'm worried that the earth will shake and the Orontes will swallow us,” said Yasmine Mist, a woman in her 30s.
Yasmin, her husband Khaled, their 10 children and mother-in-law are all sleeping in leaky tents as rainwater constantly pours into their home, which was partially destroyed by the earthquake.
“I was six months pregnant and at first I thought I was feeling dizzy. I didn't think it was an earthquake,” said Yasmin, who ran around trying to save her children and mother-in-law. He described a panic attack he had a year ago when he was terrified and thought the house was going to fall on him.
A month later, Yasmin gave birth to a premature baby boy at 7 months old, but since those stressful early days, he has grown rapidly and is busy in his tent.
It was only a few days ago that the family home was no longer habitable and Yasmin was finally able to dig out some dishes from under the ruined kitchen and start using them again in her tent.
Yasmin and her husband were agricultural laborers, but when an earthquake caused the Orontes River to overflow its banks and permanently widen its basin, many fields were flooded, making work opportunities extremely difficult. .
“I couldn't fix anything at home,” Yasmin said. “I could barely afford bread, diapers and medicine.”
But that's okay because Yasmin feels safer in the tent than at home. “When I hear about earthquakes, I get scared and feel like I've aged 10 years,” she says.
there's nowhere to go
The muddy streets of Al Hamziyah are filled with stories of loss and constant fear.
The story of Abdul Karim Al-Nisa and his family is not very different from Yasmin's. They, too, spend the day in their homes with cracks in the walls and sleep in makeshift tents nearby.
“We have repaired quite a bit of damage. We have paid more than $1,000 so far,” Abdul Karim, 40, told Al Jazeera, pointing to the house, which he still fears to live in. For him, that amount is no small amount.
Abdul Karim has been trying to follow news of the earthquake and aftershocks through social media groups, which have become hotbeds of rumors and unscientific predictions in recent months, causing constant anxiety for survivors. ing.
“I will never forget the earthquake until I die,” he said. “You never feel safe because of the aftershocks.
When I read that there will be an earthquake, I jump into a tent with my family. ”
Despite the inconvenience of living between tents and a damaged house, Abdul Karim feels helpless because he has nowhere else to go in an area where there is little security and little chance of finding a decent home. I feel the feeling.
The country's last rebel enclave, northwestern Syria, is under siege, with the Turkish border closed to the north and the Syrian Democratic Forces and the regime surrounding the country's internal borders.
According to United Nations estimates in early 2023, of the 4.5 million people living in the northwest, approximately 2.1 million are in need of shelter services, including 1.7 million in informal camps and 800,000 in informal camps. They live in tents, and 90 percent of them are dilapidated.
53,000 homes were evacuated after the earthquake damaged 10,600 buildings, and an assessment released two months after the disaster found that around 855,000 homes needed renovation and repairs to become safe again. It was shown that
Trauma and constant danger
Younis Shamat, chairman of Al Hamziyah's local council, believes it is probably normal for people to prefer to move between their homes and tents after the incident.
Of the 500 households living in the village, 62 completely lost their homes, and 70% of the remaining homes were uninhabitable due to damage.
“People can no longer live safely as 90% of houses are cracked and affected by aftershocks,” Shamat told Al Jazeera.
The United Nations said 148 towns and cities in the northwest were affected by the earthquake, mostly in Afrin, in the countryside north of Aleppo, and Harem, in the Idlib region, where al-Hamziyah is located.
Shamat believes that villages have not received as much attention as metropolitan centers.
While 20 percent of the village's population received financial aid to renovate their homes and 40 families were given tents by humanitarian organizations, aid for the remaining residents was limited to food baskets.
Shamat added that those who did not receive financial assistance to repair their homes were unable to do so, and most of the assistance was for homes with minor damage.
Before the earthquake, villagers relied on their fields and what they grew for food, but with their fields damaged, that is no longer an option.
On top of that, continuing aftershocks mean that for Yasmin, Abdul Karim and the rest of the village's family, stability and safety are a distant dream, and the only plan to deal with the earthquake's aftermath is Stay in the village. Keep your tent as long as possible.