MANCHESTER, England — Just over 100 hours after the first earthquake hit northwest Syria, global charity Human Appeal has offered 1,000 newly built brick homes as housing for internally displaced families who lost their homes in the massive earthquake that recently struck the region.
Human Appeal is the first international humanitarian NGO to offer permanent homes as shelter for those who lost their homes in northwest Syria due to the natural disaster.
The homes are part of a town settlement project by Human Appeal called Al Zohoor (in English the floral town) near Idlib northwest Syria, recently completed to provide permanent housing to 1000 internally displaced Syrian families due to the ongoing conflict.
Each single storey home comprises a modern design that includes a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom and will offer electricity and running water. The project forms part of a major development by the charity in its ongoing efforts to alleviate the suffering of internally displaced families in the area.
Demonstrating Human Appeal’s success in building permanent homes for displaced families in Syria, the Al Zohoor Town follows on the heels of its first successful housed settlement already populated by families with 272 houses in Azaz, north of Aleppo.
Human Appeal has been active in humanitarian deployments and projects in northwest Syria for the last decade, providing ongoing medical and humanitarian assistance. Its biggest ongoing programme in the area focuses on healthcare such as mobile clinics and its Al Imaan hospital that Human Appeal has been running since 2014. The hospital provides ongoing primary medical care and a maternity ward for local residents. It offers much needed medical assistance to over 2,300 people in northwest Syria each month.
“The homes will still be offered to internally displaced families in northwest Syria but will now prioritize those Syrian families who have lost their homes and possessions due to the recent deadly earthquake. There are now even more displaced people in a region where 2.8 million—out of a total population of 4 million—were already displaced. The huge consequences of this disaster require large scale international aid. Some of these displaced families do not even have a tent to shelter in from the current bitter winter conditions or coming harsh heat of summer,” commented Dr. Mohamed Ashmawey, CEO of Human Appeal.
