Exclusive interview | Lady tells SOHR her story of losing husband and son in earlier airstrikes on Sahl al-Ghab

Hundreds of female-headed families live in north-western Syria and in camps near the border with the Iskenderun region, due to the loss of their husbands and breadwinner. This has forced women to bear the burden alone and take the role of breadwinner under the poverty.

A lady known by her initials as “A.G.” from the villages of Sahl al-Ghab in north-western Hama countryside, who lost her husband and son in airstrikes targeted them, facing the bitterness of life and the difficult conditions alone, with her youngest son, who lost an eye after an injury.

In her testimony, “A.G.” told the Syrian Observatory that her husband and son, who had a small family of a wife and child, were killed in an airstrike on their village in Sahl al-Ghab in mid-2019. Their death came at a time when the people of the region were preparing to flee due to the intensive shelling. Ms. “A.G.” headed with her daughter-in-law and her child to Kafr Takhareem town in north-western countryside of Idlib. The lady had to sell her her flock of sheep that she once owned in light of the high cost of living in the area of displacement.

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The lady added that her young son was injured on his way back to check their house and what we have in the village. She lives with her injured son, daughter-in-law and young child in a basement that lacks the most basic necessities of life. The lady are now asking the humanitarian organizations to help her and her remaining family.

She received 300 Turkish lira from one organization for three months, but then the aid was halted under the pretext that she did not meet the criteria “ineligible.”

The third winter for the displaced family passes with the loss of heating materials, high living costs and the lack of jobs in the region.