The 7.8 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks have wreaked havoc across Turkey and Syria. Over 46k people have lost their lives and perhaps thousands more are still trapped under the rubble.

Many of us have come across numerous sad and touching stories of the survivors and how at times they were the only ones from the family to have survived.

One such story that caught our attention was that of a 3-year-old kid named Tariq Haider. Tariq is in Jhandires, Afrin and unfortunately lost his parents as well as all his four siblings in the devastating quake. He was rescued after 42 hours from under the rubble. If this wasn’t enough, his left leg had to be amputated. Doctors treating him at the Syrian Specialist Hospital, in Afrin, are fighting hard to save his right leg. If this is not a sad/deplorable situation, we do not know what is.

The only silver lining is that his Uncle (Ala Ahmed Hayder aged 38 yrs) and his family survived the quake and are currently looking after him in the hospital. It’s a small family consisting of his wife and two little kids, a daughter aged ~2 yrs and a son aged ~ 2 months. Unfortunately, he does not have a job (due to the ongoing civil war in Syria) and very limited resources to take care of his family and Tariq in such testing times.

Numerous news outlets (here, here and many more) have covered Tariq’s story. With so much media coverage and after checking with some of my Syrian colleagues who mentioned that such cases are typically well taken care of, we assumed that Tariq will be taken care of at least financially. As it turns out, this is not the case, at least not so far and it’s hard to blame anyone since all the charitable institutions are also unable to cope with the scale of destruction and loss/injuries to human life.

We are parents to a 3-year-old boy and Tariq’s case was beyond our comprehension, so we decided to somehow get in touch with the family and follow up. It was hard but after some initial struggle and with help from our awesome Syrian colleague at work, we were able to get in touch with Tariq’s uncle on Feb 18th.

We have been communicating with him ever since then using WhatsApp and google translate as he cannot understand/write/speak English. He is trying his best to stay calm in such a situation and patiently answered my questions. He mentioned that he is going to take care of Tariq going forward and ensure good medical treatment as well as education along with his kids. However without any good source of income, this is going to be a huge challenge and so far, the family has not received much help from the local regime or any charities.

We were also able to briefly chat with the doctor in charge who mentioned that Tariq’s situation is not completely out of danger. His right leg is in a critical state and at risk of amputation too. He is also getting some mental health support at the hospital.

We were fortunate to have a couple of video calls with the family and this brave kid. We introduced our son to Tariq hoping he might perhaps feel better to see someone his age. We really admire the courage of that 3yr old kid who seemed quite calm given his situation where the most resilient of us may give up hope. It was hard to stop the tears.

As per Tariq’s uncle, the cost of treatment may far exceed 5-6k euros, not including the post-hospitalization costs. He does not have that kind of money and at the moment plans to borrow from friends.

We are Indians living in the US and have limited knowledge of what is going out there in Syria but at this time, all we know is that we really want to help Tariq. We are going to do our best to help this family to the best of our capacity. We appeal and invite friends and family and anyone else who would want to contribute (however small does not matter) to help Tariq. If you are unable to contribute, please do share so that this reaches more people. We will be forever grateful.

Please keep Tariq in your prayers. Thank you all, with gratitude and love ❤️

Prachi & Nilesh