(F.H.), Displaced elderly woman lives in tragic circumstances and appeals to humanitarian organizations through the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights to save her and her orphaned grandchildren
The catastrophic humanitarian crisis that has befallen the Syrians over the past years has not spared anyone of its consequences, including (F.H.), the elderly woman in her seventies who lost her only son after the death of her husband more than 20 years ago, and remained alone living the bitterness of living, living the painful details of displacement, she is from Shorlin village in Jabal Shashabo in the western countryside of Hama, and she displaced from her house several times due to the shelling and she is suffering from tragic conditions due to the lack of a breadwinner.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights obtained the testimony of Ms. F.H., in which she said: “I am 68 years old, my life began in very difficult circumstances before my marriage, where our family lived a life of extreme poverty that we did not have a house that brought us together, so we lived in a police station in Shorlin village which consisted of 7 rooms, we lived in it along with several families until I got married and gave birth to 3 daughters and only one son, and all the girls are now married. The first stations of suffering after my marriage was the death of my husband, where he suffered a blockage of arteries in the heart and died as a result; three years after I gave birth to my only son Ahmad, so Ahmad became the shelter for me to which I came even after his marriage, I was living with him at his home with his wife and children, he was the only hope I lived for, with whom I lived a life of extreme poverty because of the lack of a breadwinner, he reached the 9th grade of preparatory school and did not complete his education and stared working to support our family, he worked in any available profession that may pay the bills such as agriculture, construction, paint, and other several fields, until he got married and the costs began to accumulate over him, and the only thing he was trying to of is to fill our needs, and with the beginning of the events, we moved from our village, Shorlin, several times because of the shelling, then we used to return to it every time after the situation calms, until the date of Ahmad’s death at the beginning of 2018, where the village was under artillery shelling targeted the vicinity of the school where he was. He was injured seriously in his head and that led to his death hours after he was taken to the hospital.
(F.H.) continued her testimony to the “Observatory”: “I remained alone with his wife and 2 children, Khaled and Aya, his parting was like a dream I do not want to believe until now, and I displaced with his wife and children at the beginning of the last escalation campaign, and we went to Kafr Takharim town in the northern countryside of Idlib, and after a long trouble we settled in an unfinished apartment in which the building’s owner allowed us to settle in, they are just walls with no doors, windows, no water, and no electricity. Ahmad’s wife sold a piece of gold she was wearing to buy some essential items, such as solar power board, drinking water, and some furniture for the house, and we have been there for nearly 5 months and living in very difficult humanitarian conditions, where we suffer as we do not have money to buy the daily living requirements, were also suffer from a significant shortage of food, drinking water, and medical supplies, and no internal doors inside the home, no sanitation, and we suffer all of this as winter approaches, which brings with it a lot of trouble like the high prices. Me, my son’s wife, and her children are now living on the generosity of some of the humanitarian organizations which come to us at far periods of time, in addition to the local council which is now unable to bear the burden of the displaced people in the town, because their numbers have reached a high level.”
F.H concluded her testimony for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights by saying: “we need to repair the house and deliver drinking water, food, medical supplies, and sanitation in the house, also I have been suffering for a while from a severe pain in my left eye and I do not have the price of treatment, I appeal to look at our situation, especially the requirements of children, as I can no longer bear more burdens.”