It's nearly 2 am and we'll be on the move again in a few hours to make it to our destination for Day 2. It was definitely an intense day; too much to digest. We spent part of our day at Azzaz Camp, an enclosed area full of small tents. Six months ago when the region had first come under the control of the free Syrian army, it was turned into a refugee camp were there were only 3,000 people. The same place is now home to 12,000 refugees who need everything from food, clean water, sanitation, shelter and medical aid. The area Azzaz has been loosing an average number of 170 martyrs everyday for the last six months, said Hamza at the Azzaz Press Office as we walked through entrance of the camp.
"With the increasing shelling and bombing across the region, the Turkish camps and hospitals can no longer receive more refugees and injured people," said Hossam manager of Azzaz Camp.
Here, food and clean water are always continuous needs but the most pressing need is medical aid, relayed Hossam.
Now with the weather becoming warmer as the summer draws nearer Syrian refugee camps face the threat of many contagious diseases spreading across. Already Leischmenia, a disease caused by unhygienic conditions is spreading rapidly throughout the camps due to unsanitary conditions, a lack of sewage systems and the piling up of disposed material.
The second most pressing issue is a lack of capacity to receive more refugees whose numbers are continuously on the rise everyday. Although the Turks are currently building a new camp just next door, it won't be ready for another month. In the meantime, thousands of people are being turned away and sent back into the middle of the war zone because camps like Azzaz haven't any tents to house more families.
While food, water and medical aid are such immediate needs it was really heartbreaking to see hundreds of kids who will loose out on their lives and futures while receiving no sort of education for two years now.
"We've transformed four tents into schools where 400 of the 7000 children under the age of 15 at the camp attend classes for primary and secondary levels of education," said Hossam.
But children in Syria really have so much more to think about than education. They suffer severe trauma after the experiences they've been through and most of the children are in no mental condition to receive any education.
"We find it very difficult to keep the children coming to the camp school, they really need lots of rehabilitation, treatment and therapy to overcome the horrific experiences they've lived before their minds can start to receive and accept learning," explained Hossam.
We moved quickly to visit a Hospital that received at least three emergencies during our visit. The medical team is from Egypt and they have dedicated themselves to helping the victims of this horrific violence.
The hospital was mostly children, five of which had come in 5 days ago after their school in Aleppo had been targeted and bombed. five-year old Mohamed, 3 year old Dingar and 9 year old Radwan all suffer severe head injuries and blows to their backs, legs or skeletons. they are doomed to live a future as paralysed people, if they have a chance at one at all. The school bombing in the suburbs of Aleppo is not a first; it left 42 children dead and 100 injured.
The most memorable children at the hospital were Diaa, an 11 year old girl who suffered a head and leg injury and would later share our car on a painful journey in search of a CT scan; Sultan, a 5 year old boy who lost his mother, two brothers as well as his right leg and his whole genital and urinary system; and the beautiful 13 year old Khadija who smiled from ear to ear as she told us of her journey to the market which ended in her being left paralysed waist down.
"I want to be a teacher when I grow up..and when I do I won't take any money for teaching children," she said to us.
These three children need medical attention which requires lots of funding to reconstruct Sultans urinary system and provide him an artificial limb, to provide Khadija with specialist physiotherapy to allow her to walk again and to provide the strong and patient Diaa the medical attention she needs to get back onto her feet so that she and her mother can rejoin her 9 siblings and father suffering from cancer in Aleppo once again.
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