Ever since devastating twin earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria on the night of 5-6 February killing over 50,000 people and displacing millions, the world’s attention has once again returned to the Turkey-Syria border. A catastrophe for all affected, it has been intensified for Kurds in Turkey and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria
“The Turkish state uses water as a weapon,” said women of Kobanê calling on the international community to stop the violation committed by the Turkish state, which has reduced the water of the Euphrates River.
In mid-summer 2021, local, social and civil committees were formed under the name of “Dispute Solving Committees”. It was made up largely of tribal leaders and activists of civil society organizations in Tabqa, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. Last February, those committees initiated a campaign under the name “Among your Relatives” to re-integrate ISIS-related families returning from Hawl Camp into society based on tribal sponsorships.
The Economic Committee of the North-East Syria manages 45 thousand acres of agricultural land through cooperatives which provide income for about a thousand women.
The Economic Committee of the Raqqa Zenûbiya Women’s Community Office launched a campaign to plant 4,500 saplings.
Six women’s cooperatives, agriculture and bakery cooperatives, have been started in Tirbê Spî, town of Qamishlo. 46 women make a living at these cooperatives.
The neighborhoods of Sheikh-Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in the Syrian city of Aleppo have been under a suffocating siege for years by the Syrian regime forces, and this siege continues, contrary to all human rights laws, even after the area was exposed to a devastating earthquake, a number of buildings fell, and dozens of civilians were killed and dozens injured, and the psychological suffering of children continues and the elderly.
A project named “Commune Village Project” has been put into practice in the Hasûd village of Tirbespiyê, a city in the Qamishlo Canton for the villagers to earn a living from what they produce.
The orphanage “Keskesora Alan” in Kobanê is a project implemented by the women’s foundation WJAS. The medical centre has now been expanded – and named after internationalist Lorenzo Orsetti.
But also during the intensified war and the earthquake disaster, the daily life continues and the preparation for planting new vegetables and crops have been completed. Besides other things, beans, wheat and barley have already been planted and the women continue to bake their own delicious bread.
The earthquake survivors in Semsûr have established neighborhood commissions to support and be in solidarity with each other. The aim of the commissions is to build a communal life.
Girê Spi Canton Assembly Economic Committee implemented a communal project to support the refugees in Girê Spi Camp.
