She lost 4 of her sons to the war and the Russian – Turkish agreement forced her to displace from the Eastern Ghouta, 60-years-old woman appeals to international organizations through SOHR to look at their situation
The 60-years-old lady M.K moved from Nashabiyah town in the Eastern Ghouta in Rif Dimashq, until she arrived in Kafr Takharim town in the northern countryside of Idlib, after losing 4 of her children in shelling and siege she suffered in the Ghouta, where she has now only one son left, who is suffering from “Degenerative Disk” which makes him unable to work to support her and his family of 4 children, and as winter comes, the 60-years-old woman is looking for a way to get the costs of buying heating materials and some supplies, and she began working as an olive picker -despite her age- in order to support her family, while her son tries to earn a living by teaching math for students at home. And in her testimony to the Syrian Observatory, Ms. M.K. says: “after difficult days in the Eastern Ghouta in Rif Dimashq during the siege in Nashabiyah town, 4 of my children were martyred in addition to my brother-in-law and my son-in-law, and we lived a life of extreme poverty and we had no food or medicine, not to mention the severe shelling that targeted the villages and towns, and the last martyr of my family was my 30-years-old son, who worked at hospital of Kafr Batna city, and he was hit by an airstrike while he was leaving the hospital to secure blood for the injured people who were being treated in the hospital, and then we went out after agreements were made to get civilians and the fighting members out to the Syrian north.”
“We went out on a 3-days-long road, during which we were insulted in regime’s-controlled areas, where people threw shoes and stones are us; until we reached Qal’aat al-Madiq after midnight in a very cold weather, then the displaced people began to scatter in areas of the Syrian north, and a car took us to the main square in Kafr Takharim town in the northern countryside of Idlib, I was back then with my only son, his wife, and children, while my daughters preferred to stay with their husbands in Rif Dimashq, we only had a blanket and a few clothes, and long hours passed without anyone caring about us despite our tragic situation, until a man came at dawn, he is from Hama city, and asked us about our situation then took us to his home, we stayed with him for a whole week, and we were well received at his home, then one of the civilians let us live in a house he owned consists of 4 rooms and parts of it were destroyed earlier by the airstrikes, so we cleaned the house and moved to it after some items and supplies were collected from some civilians in the neighborhood, and since then we have been living in very difficult humanitarian conditions.”
The lady M.K. continued her testimony to the “Observatory” saying: “my only son suffers from degenerative disk in his back, where he underwent surgery late 2018 in Idlib city, after the donations were collected for us in the mosque of Kafr Takharim town, and from some of the donators, and the cost of the operation was 300 thousand Syrian pounds, he now cannot walk long distances and cannot carry a heavy weight, cannot work because of his health condition, and he has 4 children, and as for the humanitarian organizations, we didn’t see anything from them, and we didn’t receive any kind of assistance, except one food basket provided by KOL at the beginning of our displacement to here, and then we registered with the local council and every once in a while they provide some drinking water and sometimes a few bags of bread. I live with my family in a difficult living situation, especially with the start of winter which is about to enter, and I have to secure the expenses and money to buy heating materials, where I now work in a workshop for olive picking for 1200 Syrian pounds per day, knowing that I am doing it to buy our supplies of food, medicine, drinking water, electricity subscriptions and more, my son gives private math lessons for 4 baccalaureate students, trying to take responsibility for his wife and children.”
Ms. M.K. concluded her testimony to the Syrian Observatory by appealing to the humanitarian organizations to consider the living situation of her and her family, and to provide a helping hand and assistance, shy says: “I appeal to humanitarian organizations operating in the Syrian north, to look to my situation and provide the necessary assistance, including heating, clothing, medicine, food, and drinking water, where the living situation is constantly deteriorating and I can no longer bear it.”