A year after Syria’s deadly earthquake, orphaned children adjust to the loss bit by bit

Yasmine Shahoud arrives for physical therapy at a hospital in Idlib. Yasmine was seriously injured and lost all of her immediate family in an earthquake in an earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey. (AP)
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Updated 05 February 2024
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A year after Syria’s deadly earthquake, orphaned children adjust to the loss bit by bit

  • 542 children were found unaccompanied and separated after the earthquake throughout Syria
  • Losing their parents in the earthquake was only the latest in a string of tragedies

IDLIB: Aya Al-Sudani, a bubbly toddler with a toothy smile, will mark her first birthday on Tuesday, but there will be no celebration with cake and presents. The day also marks a dark memory.
On Feb. 6, 2023, a massive earthquake hit Syria and Turkiye and the baby girl was pulled alive from the rubble of her family’s house in the town of Jinderis in northern Syria. She was still attached by an umbilical cord to her dead mother.
The girl was named “Baby Aya” — Aya is Arabic for “a sign from God” — by hospital workers but nicknamed Afraa in memory of her mother by the relatives who are now her guardians. The newborn was the only surviving member of her immediate family after the devastating quake that killed more than 59,000 people.
She was one of hundreds of children orphaned or separated from their families by the disaster, on top of many more who have lost their parents in the country’s nearly 13-year civil war.
Some 542 children were found “unaccompanied and separated” after the earthquake throughout Syria, said Eva Hinds, a spokesperson for the United Nations children’s agency or UNICEF. Some were eventually reunited with their parents, others placed with “close relatives or extended family, and some have been supported with alternative care,” she said.




Afraa was pulled alive from the rubble of her family's house in the town of Jinderis in northern Syria, still attached by an umbilical cord to her dead mother


Local authorities in northwest Syria say at least 537 children lost a parent to the quake, although of those only 61 were recorded as having lost both their mother and father. The real number is likely higher.
A year later, those children have begun to adjust to their new reality, most of them living now with extended family while smaller numbers have ended up in foster homes or orphanages.
For many of them, losing their parents in the earthquake was only the latest in a string of tragedies.
“Almost everyone in Syria at this point has a personal connection to loss because of the conflict,” said Kathryn Achilles, a spokesperson for Save the Children ‘s Syria response office. “It’s not something that children should have to learn to live with … having to deal with loss and deal with displacement and deal with losing family and community.”
Yasmine Shahoud was 11 when the earthquake struck. Her family had been displaced from their hometown of Maarat Al-Numan to the town of Armanaz in northwest Syria, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) away. Despite the war, she remembers many carefree hours playing and laughing with her siblings after school.
On Feb. 6, their house collapsed, and she was buried under the rubble for 20 hours before rescue workers pulled her out. Yasmine’s arm and leg were crushed, requiring a series of surgeries. For the first few weeks, no one had the heart to tell the badly injured girl that her family was dead.
“When I arrived at the hospital, the child Yasmine was in a state of shock and didn’t understand what had happened,” said Ghaitha Al-Ibrahim, a social worker with the Syrian American Medical Society who has followed her case.
The girl stayed for several months in an orphanage to be near the hospital and because she needed intensive physical therapy. Now she is living with her grandfather, aunt and uncle and cousins, with whose help, she said, “I made it through a lot of hard steps.” Although she still walks with difficulty, she has gone back to school. She hopes eventually to become a pharmacist.
The first period was “very, very hard,” Yasmine said, but “thank God, I’m getting better.”
In the town of Harem in Idlib province, where 8-year-old Hanaa Shreif now lives with her grandfather and uncle’s family, she likes to play with her baby cousin, born after the earthquake, who was named Mahmoud at Hanaa’s request after her deceased father.
Hanaa’s parents and sister died in the quake and Hanaa was trapped under the rubble for 33 hours. At first, doctors thought her hand would have to be amputated.
“She asked about her family, her mother and her father, and bit by bit we told her that they had gone to heaven,” said her uncle, Ali Shreif.
After the earthquake, some children “were found in the streets, in garbage dumps, in front of mosques or among the fields who had been abandoned,” said Alaeddin Janid, founder of Child Houses, a non-governmental organization that runs two shelters for orphaned or abandoned children. The organization works to reunite them with family members or place them in foster homes. Islam generally does not recognize legal adoption but encourages providing long-term guardianship to orphans.
Their center was badly damaged in the earthquake — although staff and children managed to get out safely — and they had to quickly secure another location to be able to receive the flood of children orphaned or separated from their families by the quake. Some of the shelter staff buried their own loved ones and then came back to work.
They were soon caring for about 100 children in their shelters, which before would host no more than 35.
“About 70 percent of them, we were able to find their relatives and 30 percent, their family was all dead or the relatives had abandoned the child,” Janid said.
In those cases, he said, the group worked to place the children with vetted foster families. “An orphanage is not a suitable place for any child to begin his life.”
Despite the tragedy of her birth, Baby Aya — or Afraa — was one of the lucky ones. With no memory of the family she lost, the only parents she knows are her aunt and aunt’s husband who took her in. Their four daughters and two sons have become like her sisters and brothers.
The family has an apartment in Jinderis where they stay in the daytime, but at night they crowd into a tent in one of the area’s displacement camps, still afraid to sleep in a concrete building lest another earthquake should bring it down on their heads. Since the earthquake, the area lacks both work opportunities and schools.
The baby’s uncle and guardian, Khalil Al-Sawadi, said he hopes she will have the chance to study — possibly outside of Syria — and “take the highest degree, not like my children.”
The family will not celebrate her first birthday because “this day is a painful memory.” But he said, “I have hope at the same time because of the presence of Afraa, and we will tell her about this memory when she gets older.”


Libya’s eastern-based parliament passed budget for its development fund

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Libya’s eastern-based parliament passed budget for its development fund

BENGHAZI: Libya’s eastern-based parliament voted on Tuesday to approve a budget for its development and reconstruction fund, a parliament spokesperson and member said, although it is unclear if the money will be forthcoming given the country’s divisions.
The budget of 69 billion Libyan dinar ($12.71 billion) will be spread equally over three years, lawmaker Tarek Jroushi told Reuters, adding that the funds will be overseen by the parliament.
Parliament spokesperson Abdullah Blheg earlier announced the approval of the budget in a post on X, without disclosing the budget amount.
The fund, established in February last year by the eastern-based House of Representatives, has independent financial status, according to the parliament gazette.
However it is unclear if the governor of the Tripoli-based Central Bank of Libya, Naji Issa, will hand over the money for the fund. The central bank, based in Tripoli, is the only internationally recognized depository for Libyan oil revenues, the country’s vital economic income.
The eastern development fund is headed by Belgasem Haftar, a son of military commander Khalifa Haftar.
The Benghazi-based government of Osama Hamad is allied to Haftar, who controls the east and large parts of the southern region of Libya.
The north African country’s separate Tripoli-based Government of National Unity is headed by interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah, who was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021.

Bahrain elected to Arab seat at UN Security Council for 2026-2027, succeeding Algeria

Updated 33 min 19 sec ago
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Bahrain elected to Arab seat at UN Security Council for 2026-2027, succeeding Algeria

  • Bahrain FM Alzayani calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza, release of hostages and detainees, inflow of humanitarian aid to enclave

NEW YORK CITY: The UN General Assembly on Tuesday elected Bahrain to the 15-member UN Security Council for two-year terms starting on Jan. 1, 2026.

The Gulf country was joined for the same stint by Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia, and Liberia.

The Security Council is the only UN body that can make legally binding decisions such as imposing sanctions and authorizing use of force. It has five permanent veto-wielding members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

The remaining 10 members are elected, with five new members joining every year. Bahrain, Colombia, the DRC, Latvia, and Liberia — who were all elected in uncontested slates — will replace Algeria, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Guyana and Slovenia.

To ensure geographical representation, seats are allocated to regional groups. But even if candidates are running unopposed in their group, they still need to win the support of more than two-thirds of the General Assembly.

Bahrain received 186 votes, DRC 183 votes, Liberia 181 votes, Colombia 180 votes and Latvia 178 votes.

The General Assembly on Monday elected former German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock as president of the 193-member body for its 80th session, which begins in September.


UAE’s foreign minister, Australian counterpart reaffirm friendship

Updated 47 min 49 sec ago
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UAE’s foreign minister, Australian counterpart reaffirm friendship

  • Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Penny Wong review issues 50 years on from establishing diplomatic relations

LONDON: Foreign ministers of the UAE and Australia have reaffirmed the friendship of their countries, some 50 years on from establishing diplomatic relations.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Penny Wong stressed in a phone call their mutual commitment to strengthening areas of cooperation in support of both countries’ development goals, the Emirates News Agency reported.

The parties also reviewed regional and international issues of mutual interest and expressed their commitment to continue cooperating to achieve growth.

Abu Dhabi and Canberra are celebrating 50 years since establishing diplomatic relations in March 1975.


Jordan condemns Israeli settler incursion into Al-Aqsa, reaffirms responsibility for mosque

Updated 03 June 2025
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Jordan condemns Israeli settler incursion into Al-Aqsa, reaffirms responsibility for mosque

  • Hundreds of Israeli settlers entered Al-Aqsa compound in the Old City, which is part of occupied East Jerusalem
  • Jordanian Foreign Ministry said settler incursion would not be possible without protection, facilitation of Israeli police

LONDON: The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs condemned the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by extremist Israeli settlers, describing the action as provocative.

On Monday and Tuesday, hundreds of Israeli settlers entered the compound in the Old City, which is part of occupied East Jerusalem. The ministry described the setters’ behavior as “inflammatory acts that aim to impose new temporal and spatial divisions at the mosque.”

Settlers regularly tour the site under the protection of Israeli police and are often accompanied by government officials and far-right ministers.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sufian Qudah said that the settlers’ incursion “would not be possible without the protection and facilitation of the Israeli police,” demanding that the Israeli authorities “halt their irresponsible and dangerous practices.”

On Tuesday, some settlers performed Talmudic rituals in Al-Aqsa compound known as “epic prostration,” in which the worshipper bows low to the ground in a display of humility and reverence, the Petra news agency reported.

Qudah emphasized that the 144-dunam area of Al-Aqsa Mosque is a place of worship exclusively for Muslims. He highlighted that the Jerusalem Endowments Council, which operates under Jordan’s Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, is the only legal authority responsible for managing and regulating Al-Aqsa’s affairs, Petra added.


Palestinian appeals for blood donations unanswered in Gaza due to widespread hunger, malnutrition

Updated 03 June 2025
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Palestinian appeals for blood donations unanswered in Gaza due to widespread hunger, malnutrition

  • Nearly 2 million Palestinians face imminent risk of widespread hunger as Israel has mostly restricted access to sufficient humanitarian aid
  • Hospitals across Gaza are experiencing a critical shortage of essential medications, surgical supplies, and diagnostic imaging equipment

LONDON: Palestinian medics are facing challenging conditions while treating patients and the injured in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing Israeli attacks in the coastal enclave.

Health and medical staff have reported to the Wafa news agency that their appeals for community blood donations have gone largely unanswered due to widespread hunger and malnutrition, while life-saving resources are rapidly depleting in many hospitals.

Nearly 2 million Palestinians face an imminent risk of widespread hunger as Israel has mostly restricted access to sufficient humanitarian aid since it resumed its military actions in March.

Hospitals across Gaza are experiencing a critical shortage of essential medications, surgical supplies, and diagnostic imaging equipment, hindering doctors from carrying out emergency procedures necessary to save lives, Wafa added.

Operating rooms, intensive care units, and emergency departments are struggling under the pressure of a growing number of critically injured patients, and fuel is running out to generate power.

On Monday, Palestinian medical sources in Gaza revealed that 41 percent of kidney failure patients have died since October 2023 amid ongoing Israeli attacks and restrictions on humanitarian and medical aid.

Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza over the weekend, one of the few specialized facilities providing kidney dialysis to 160 patients.