Fighting in Aleppo Continues but SOS Children are Safe
Article by Abeer Pamuk
In embattled Aleppo, SOS Children’s Villages co-worker thankful for decision to move children
Aleppo child friendly space coordinator recalls the moments leading up to the relocation of children to safer ground
As fighting raged around the SOS Children’s Villages child friendly space (CFS) in Aleppo earlier this year, the staff had to decide every day whether it was safe to open and sometimes had to send children to safety.
Against the backdrop of intensified fighting, SOS Children’s Villages International safely relocated 24 children from the nearby Interim Care Centre (ICC) in Aleppo to Damascus on 15 April and suspended activities at the CFS that is located in the same neighbourhood. The children who were living at the ICC have been cared for by SOS staff and specialists in Damascus who are providing psychological and emotional support.
But in the weeks leading up to the move, SOS Children’s Villages staff in Aleppo on a daily basis had to evaluate whether it was safe to open the CFS and often had to suspend work as fighting raged, according to Hadil Kharboutli, coordinator of the CFS. In an interview this week, she explained the conditions that prompted the relocation of the children at the ICC and the closure of the CFS at the end of April.
“On so many occasions, we had to evacuate the CFS and call the parents to come and take the children. We also had days where even the parents couldn’t leave the house so we delivered the children ourselves each to their house to make sure they were safe”, Ms Kharboutli, who remains in Aleppo, explained in a telephone interview. “I once even had to put 12 children in my car and take them back home after the sound of bombings was heard close to our centre.”
“Some days we would have 25 to 30 children in the building and rockets would start falling around”, Ms Kharboutli said of the weeks leading up to close the SOS facilities in Aleppo. “It used to get the children very scared. We used to all sit in the ground floor with them and try to sing and play music so maybe our voices will make them forget the bombing.”
“Of course we had an evacuation plan and training for all the children and employees for such situations. But attacks had become more frequent than before. In the final month of operation, we had to make a security assessment at the beginning of each day to be able to decide whether to open or not”, Ms Kharboutli said.
“I am very thankful that our children were moved to Damascus as some of rockets shrapnel landed in the CFS, causing some of the windows to shatter. We are happy that at that time there were no children inside.”
The CFS in Aleppo, which opened in May 2015 as part of the SOS emergency program, served more than 2,200 children before operations were suspended in April.
Aleppo remains a city under siege with fierce fighting reported at the end of the Eid al-Fitr religious festival in early July. It remains uncertain when SOS Children’s Villages can resume its help there despite the need.
Alia Al-Dalli, International Director of the Middle East and North Africa Region, said on 21 July that SOS Children’s Villages “is shocked and dismayed to hear about an even greater escalation of violence in and around the area of Aleppo. Alongside the United Nations, we are appalled to hear about attacks on children occurring on a daily basis and we strongly condemn the beheading of a child this week. Children are the future and we call upon all parties to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children in the midst of this horrific war.”
Referring to the flare-up in fighting this month, the chief doctor at the university hospital in Aleppo told SOS Children’s Villages by telephone: “I have been working in the emergency room of this hospital for five years now and this is one of the bloodiest days we had. We opened 18 emergency rooms at the same time to take Eid clothes off injured children.”
*The photos were provided by a person living in Aleppo but who is not employed by SOS Children’s Villages.