I’m Osama. I volunteered to spend the rest of my life helping refugees and people running or surviving from death. I don’t have a house here, so I stay in my tent located in the Shuhadaa suburb camp located in northern Aleppo. This camp is based in the village of Samarin. The small village of kindness that keeps us together.

Many things happen here. With the things going on here, novels could be written for years. Life here is already hard and maybe even impossible for some other people living in other parts of the world. But it’s not any other part of the world. It’s the sad little Aleppo running from the cruelties, but the only thing it has ever gotten is cruelty itself!

Most of the residents here are familiar with agricultural efforts and that’s how they earn their bread. Having pure water in the fastest time possible is considered a case of luxuriousness. While it is the easiest thing to do in most places of the world. Staying healthy for people here is not simple at all due to the water supply circumstances. We fetch water daily and contain it in the numerous small containers that we collected. We clean and sterilize these bottles before using them to prevent germs from easily spreading in such a limited area of living.

Since COVID-19 hit the world, we are even more cautious about protecting the health of adults and the elderly. I gather folks here playing the medical advice from YouTube and the advice provided by the hospital’s community health team. I asked one of our kind sponsors to bring hand sanitizers and sterilizing alcohol from Latakia. He was kind enough to bring us more than what we needed.

I buy loads of soap and masks and deliver them to every person living here almost every week. I have taught them how to wash their hands the right way and how long they should be doing it. They all seem to be good at it now. I also teach them about the symptoms of a sick person with the virus and all the things they should or shouldn’t be doing. I was trained as a paramedic, so I know how to examine and handle a situation with a sick person just in case.

Thankfully, we haven’t had any COVID-19 cases so far because we are sort of isolated from the community. But I pray every day that the coronavirus would never reach here. As lucky as we are for staying clean from it, we will fail so bad if it hits us here. Our camp is a small area with limited health care services, so it will be a nightmare if COVID-19 spreads among these helpless people whose only hope is surviving here.

May God save the innocent and the world from all the diseases and miseries created by man’s own hands.