Al-Twaina Camp.. Challenging the difficulties of displacement in the absence of international organizations.
Ahmed Al-Bero
While it was raining, Jawhara Mahmoud a resident of Al-Manajir in the countryside of Serê Kaniyê (Ras Al-Ain), pushes the gathered rain water away from her small tent inside the Al-Twaina Camp, which was established by the self-administration in north of Hasaka and called it “Washukani camp”, to provide a shelter for the IDPs from Serê Kaniyê (Ras Al-Ain) and its countryside, and the towns of Girê Spî (Tal Abyad) and Zarkan. This is a scene that summarizes some of what the IDPs who fled beacuse of the Turkish bombing in this early winter. “The most disturbing thing for all of us is that water flow to our tents, which means drowning our mattresses and clothes, as well as the diseases that will be spread,” says the thirty-four-year-old women. She adds painfully: “We fear that we will not survive the winter in this camp, the cold is very severe and these tents do not give us warmth,”
Jawhara Mahmoud’s family consists of her husband and four children, they fled to the camp, after the aggression of Turkish army and Syrian Islamic radical factions against the cities of Serê Kaniyê (Ras Al-Ain) and Girê Spî (Tal Abyad) and their countryside, like all the other newly arrived IDPs to the camp, Jawhara’s family got a tent, blankets, mattresses and heaters, but despite that they suffer a lot because the lack of services.
“There is a lack of services and food, we get only one meal per day and always the same (bulgur, soup or rice and soup) since we came here, we are not able here to prepare food in our tents, because there is no gas nor kitchenware, we haven’t eaten a hot meal since we came, there is a general kitchen belongs to the camp in which the daily meals are prepared,” Jawhara says wity a sigh.
Lack of services is another pain added to the pain of displacement
In this camp which is run by self-administration, not only food is the problem, but there are other reasons that make Jawhara and other women living here lives unbearable.
“There are bathrooms but are not equipped yet, women do not know what to do, it is very difficult to be in a place full of people and there is no place free for women to meet their needs, no one cares about us,” says Jawhara.
She adds: “We spend our day between the fear of that water flow into the tents, securing food and protecting our children, and searching for whatever warms the place, we lost everything, we do not have what enables us to secure our needs, so we resorted to the camp as you see,” says while refering to the tents scattered on the muddy ground.
The situation of Omar Abu Aziz who comes from Al-Hawarana neighborhood in the city of Serê Kaniyê (Ras Al-Ain), is not better than the rest of the IDP families, as he is father of six children, and suffers from heart disease.
“We suffer a lot, no food is provided regularly, one meal per day with two loaves of bread for each individual, who can be satisfied with two loaves throughout the day? My children remain hungry and I do not have money to provide food for them,” he says. “I lost my home, my job, and everything I have, and here in the tent you will not even find a a piece of rug to sit on it, you will not find what warms these young children, they will get sick, life is difficult here, the aid organizations and the camp management are very slow in doing their job, we need more blankets, we need heaters, food and water,”.
Omar Abu Aziz, along with dozens of families, stayed for about two months inside a school in the city of Hasaka, but he left because of “hunger” as he says to SHAR magazine. “We used to see aid boxes coming to the school, but nothing came to us, there was no fair distribution, so we left the school and headed to the camp, but unfortunately the procedures here are complicated, every aid worker throws you to another, so you go back disappointment to your tent, five days ago we lived in a tent where there was nothing, we slept on the wet soil,”
Diseases increases the bitterness of displacement
Sherif Saleh who comes from the village of Lailan in Serê Kaniyê (Ras Al-Ain) countryside, complains about the lack of necessary medicines in the only pharmacy in the camp. “When you have to go to the doctor, he is often a non-specialist doctor, when prescribing the medicine, you are surprised that he is not available in the camp, then we are forced to leave camp to secure the durg,” Sherif says.
As the same situation of Mahmoud Al-Ali, an IDP from the village of Um Al-Khair in the countryside of Serê Kaniyê (Ras Al-Ain) who also complains about the same issue in the camp. “If you visit the camp clinic, the doctor often prescribes the same and only drug for all patients, which is a painkiller syrup for children, sometimes the doctor does not check the patient or does an examination, he just asks about the symptoms then he writes a prescription which is similar for all children and cases,” Mahmoud Al-Ali says.
The Kurdish Red Crescent also has its justifications
Since the start of the (Washukai Camp), the Kurdish Red Crescent had built a medical center inside the camp to provide medical care to patients, children, men and women over the course of 24 hours, but these services were not within the required level, based on the complaints of some of IDPs who spoke to SHAR Magazine. However, “Jihan Amer”, the co-president of the Kurdish Red Crescent and the supervisor of the camp, denied these allegations and considered them “inaccurate” and says: “There is daily in the camp from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon, two specialist doctors, one specializing children and the other internal specialization, and in the remaining time, there is an ambulance department and women’s clinic open their doors throughout the day, in critical cases patients are transferred by ambulances to free charge hospitals,”.
Jihan Amer also revealed serious preparations for establishing a hospital that includes many departments inside the camp, and said “at the present time we are working in an emergency manner,”
As for the support provided by international organizations or the World Health Organization, Jihan Amer says:”So far we have not received any support from any medical organization, whether international or regional, there are deficiencies, but the whole matter is urgent and emergency, the Kurdish Red Crescent provides medical services, including medicines, free of charge to all the IDPs.
Over 800 IDP families while international humanitarian organizations are absent
“Washukani Camp includes more than 800 families, 4081 people, most of them women and children, who were displaced from the city of Serê Kaniyê (Ras Al-Ain) and its countryside, and the towns of Abu Rasen and Tal Tamr and their countryside,” according to Feryal Ahmed, director of Washuani camp.
She tells SHAR magazine: “Ava Organization provided a quantity of diesel heaters, but it does not cover the entire camp’s need, even blankets and mattresses, we do not have the capabilities to give everyone, international organizations do not provide any assistance, while local organizations try to work with all their energy, but it lacks the necessary capabilities. The situation in the camp is very difficult, because the largest percentage are women, some of them are pregnant, as well as ill old people, and all of these cases need care and attention, we are in the winter, weather is very cold and our capabilities are limited,”
She concludes her speech by saying: “The situation of the IDPs remains in a continuous decline without any significant move from the international organizations, they do nothing except taking pictures and recording names without a real contribution to end the suffer of these people, while the local organizations make all the efforts to secure some of the needs,”.