Aya – the earthquake baby everyone wants to adopt 9 videos from the rubble in Turkey and Syria that give hope

The story of the dust-covered child of the Syrian Janairis goes around the world – the little girl was born under the rubble.

Ten hours after the first quake, a man was able to pull the baby out of the rubble. Buried under the concrete, the little girl was still connected to her deceased mother by the umbilical cord. The parents and four siblings could not be found alive.

After the newborn could be rescued, it was taken to a hospital in Afrin. The freezing cold has made the small limbs dull. The baby was bruised and cut when rushed to hospital.

Based on body temperature, the newborn appears to have been born a few hours after the earthquake, said attending physician Dr. Hani Maarouf told the AP news agency. The doctor estimates that the mother was conscious at birth and died shortly afterwards. He continues: “If the girl had stayed there an hour longer, she would have died.”

The Miracle of Janairis

The baby miraculously survived – prompting the doctors at the hospital to name the little girl Aya, which means miracle in Arabic. The name comes from the Quran, where aya is considered a sign in which God’s power manifests.

Hospital director Khalid Attiah told the BBC he has received numerous requests from people around the world to adopt baby Aya – without the little one being given up for adoption.

Attiah had to explain to thousands of people that Aya could not be adopted. Because: the great-uncle has already agreed to take the child in as soon as it is released from the hospital. Alone: ​​His house has been destroyed, he currently lives in a tent with eleven other people. In the freezing cold.

The village of Janairis, located in the rebel-held enclave in northwestern Syria, has been hit hard by the earthquakes. Only ten percent of the buildings here are still habitable, great-uncle Salah al-Badran told the BBC.

Aya’s family had a difficult fate anyway: before the earthquake, the family had to flee from the east of the country because their home, the province of Deir el-Zour, was taken by the terrorist militia IS. In Dschandairis, the family built a new life – in the house that collapsed in the earthquake, killing 20 of Aya’s relatives.

Countless children have been orphaned by the earthquake

Aya is just one of countless children who lost their parents in the earthquake. According to news agency AP News, an orphanage has been built in the Syrian city of Azaz to house 40 children.

It is difficult to determine how many children have been orphaned by the disaster, said Muheeb Qaddour, deputy head of the health service in Syria’s Idlib province. “Unfortunately, it only becomes clear after the dust from the earthquake has settled,” said Qaddour.