UNHCR provides relief aid to new returnees in northern Rural-Hama

Hammad is in his sixties, a father of seven children of which one was born with a disability. Recently Hammad and his family returned to their home in Ma’ardes village in Rural Hama, after a long year of displacement.

During clashes, Hammad insisted to stay at home despite the continuous fighting throughout the crisis in Syria, but as the fighting became severe last year, he fled with his family to Ma’ar Shuhur, a village in north-western rural Hama to seek safety. There, local residents offered them a place to stay, as he and his family had no money and could not afford to rent a house.

Hammad and his family have returned to their house in Maardes after a year of displacement. Hammad says when the conflict started in Ma’ardes, they had to flee to Ma’ar Shuhur, a village located in northern-western rural Hama.

Oweish, Hammad’s wife, invited us into her home to show us the destruction inside. She showed us the water well they use for drinking. Their son’s house next door, is completely demolished, while Hammad’s house has no windows and all furniture looted.

“Even though our house does not have windows nor furniture, when we heard that the fighting ended, we decided to return immediately”, said Hammad. Hammad returned to his house in Ma’ardes with his wife Oweish, his two daughters, son, his daughter-in-law and his four grandchildren, all to find both their house and his son’s house totally destroyed. Hammad, like many families in this area, is a pistachio and olive farmers. Now, he has no source of income except what little wages he’s able to earn working for other people during harvest time.

“When we heard that the fighting ended, we decided to return immediately”

The bitter fighting in northern rural Hama caused a lot of damage and destruction to infrastructure; schools, hospitals and homes. According to United Nations’ reports, around 13,299 people have returned to Hama governorate between January and August 2017, 11,975 out of them returned to Suran city alone.

Mustafa, another resident from Ma’ardes village, had to leave his house four times during the crisis because of the intense fighting. Mustafa’s family kept renting houses in Hama and Idleb governorates during their displacement this last year. One month ago, they decided to return to their destroyed house in Ma’ardes village. Mustafa had to sell his wife’s only piece of jewellery to start up a grocery store project in the area.

“We’re glad to be back although our house is wrecked. We can turn everything back like it was before as long as we have our will to make it happen”, Mustafa said.

“We’re glad to be back although our house is wrecked”

To offer relief and some comfort to returnees, this week, UNHCR dispatched humanitarian assistance enough for 3,200 families who have returned recently to now accessible Suran city and its surrounding towns of Taibat Al-Imam and Ma’ardes in northern rural Hama. Aid delivered included: 4,800 mattresses, 4,800 sleeping mats, 8,000 blankets, 3,200 sleeping bags, 1,600 winter clothing kits, 3,200 jerry cans, 1,600 kitchen sets, 1,600 hygiene kits, 1,600 plastic sheets, 1,600 solar lamps.

“These items will come in handy, especially as winter is approaching fast,” said Abu Saeed, a local resident.

UNHCR teams together with partners are monitoring the humanitarian situation on the ground in Suran, Ma’ardes and Taibat Al-Imam to assess the needs of returnees. This assessment is essential to provide the reasonable response to the people most in need.

Before the fighting erupted in Syria seven years ago, Suran city, was home to 47,000 people. While Taibat Al-Imam’s population was 35,000 and 15,000 used to live in Ma’ardes.

Last month, UNHCR’s Representative for Syria, Sajjad Malik paid a field visit to Suran city and witnessed first-hand the planned sites of rehabilitation projects, including a bakery and a school. “The number of homes destroyed is huge. As a first step, UNHCR will be working to install windows and doors to the damaged homes”, Malik said.

Aman Elwan contributed to reporting from Homs.