海角大神

How one Syrian family braves life in a divided Aleppo

The battle for Aleppo has destroyed entire neighborhoods and pushed thousands of residents to flee. For many left behind, savings have been spent and survival is a daily focus.

At a charity center recently set up in a former聽school in a shabby neighborhood of Syria's largest city, a woman shows聽up seeking milk for the tiny baby she's holding.

She says Shahinaz, who is wrapped up in blankets and sleeping quietly,聽is a month old, but the child looks more like a newborn. The聽distribution center volunteers give her milk for the baby, but that's聽not all she needs.

"There is no milk. There is no gas. There is no sugar. There is no聽water," says the woman, who gives her name as Souda. Shahinaz is her
granddaughter. "There's been no work for my husband since the first聽day of Ramadan," she says. That was in July.

The battle for Syria's largest city has destroyed entire neighborhoods聽and pushed thousands of residents to flee. For some of those left聽behind, who choose not to leave or simply have nowhere else to go, it聽has turned their daily lives into a struggle for survival.聽

In neighborhoods where rebels battled regime forces, apartment聽buildings lie in piles of rubble, the strewn personal belongings the聽only trace of former inhabitants. When rebels push the front line聽forward several blocks, capturing new territory, residents come back聽to retrieve what they can salvage of their belongings. They push carts聽loaded with washing machines, or drive trucks piled with mattresses聽and furniture through the rubble, relying on rebel checkpoints to help聽them avoid sniper fire.

In neighborhoods like the one where Souda lives, most of the houses聽are intact, but not all of them. Walking back to her home from the聽distribution center, she passes a house reduced to rubble by a bomb in September. A聽purple high-heeled shoe, covered in concrete dust, hangs from a piece聽of iron rebar sticking out of the heap.

'On the verge'

At Souda's home, around two dozen family members from three聽generations are living together in one two-story house. They gather in聽the simple salon, sitting on floor cushions and a cheap straw mat that聽serves as a carpet, to tell their story. Before Syria's battle moved into Aleppo, five men in this family were working, bringing in about 80,000 Syrian pounds ($1,145) a month to support the entire family. Now, there is no income.

The grandfather has been out of work since July. All of the men worked in聽factories or workshops that are now closed because the owners live in聽parts of the city still controlled by the regime, say family members.

The businessmen wouldn't dare cross into the rebel-held part of the city, which is聽bombarded daily, to open the factories, even if there was enough fuel聽to do so, says Souda.

The family burned through its savings in two months. Then they tried聽to sell their television, but no one was buying. Now they live on charity, eating simple food like sesame paste and bread. The last time聽they had meat, says Souda, was two months ago. When Shahinaz was born, her father, Haitham, borrowed 4,000 Syrian pounds ($57) to pay聽the doctor and hospital.

"If we don't receive any support, how can we live?" asks Souda. "You聽can say we are on the verge of [going hungry]."

'Before there was injustice'

Like the milk for the baby Souda received that day, the family sometimes takes food assistance from the same charity center down the road. The聽volunteers there, locals who began organizing in late July, use money donated聽by businessmen in Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, an Islamic organization聽in Denmark, and an Arab doctors' union to buy food. They distribute bags聽that include rice, oil, lentils, sugar, pasta, tea, jam, and tomato聽sauce in this neighborhood. They also provide free medical treatment. But the need is far聽greater than the supply.

Ali Nasrallah, one of the volunteers, says they have helped about聽2,000 families so far. But they will run out of supplies before the聽applicants stop pouring through the door. Before giving a family help, the volunteers register their information, and visit the applicants' homes to assess their need.

"There are many families who聽don't get help," Mr. Nasrallah says. Many of the rebel-held areas of Aleppo are聽poorer than those still held by the regime, so families were already聽living closer to the edge of poverty before the war.

Back at Souda's house, the men say they feel embarrassed that they can聽no longer provide for the family. But the matriarch doesn't curse the聽war that put them in such hardship. "I am not upset about the聽revolution. It's God's will for it to be like this," she says. "It's聽worth it. It is worth the sacrifice, because before there was聽injustice. There was humiliation for us."