Baraa Al Ali had already lived through a lot when the earthquake struck Syria and Türkiye on February 6.

The 44-year-old mother of six from Al Ghab, a district in the governorate of Hama, had been forced to flee her home several times during the 12 years of the Syrian conflict and had been relying on her four sheep to feed her children since the death of her husband, four years ago.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake caused structural damages to Baraa's home, forcing her and her children to relocate to a shelter, which they currently share with 40 other rural families from their area. The seism also destroyed their shed, trapping and killing the sheep inside.

“We have experienced nothing but displacement and uncertainty for several years, but at least I knew I would eventually return to my house to herd my sheep and feed my children. Now that I have lost everything, I am blessed to have my children alive, but I do not know how I will feed them,” Baraa said.

Baraa is not alone.

In Syria, the earthquake has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 100 000 households, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The impact on the residents of Al Ghab, most of whom rely heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods, was devastating. In addition to the years of armed conflict, families in Syria have suffered from floods, extreme weather conditions, soaring food prices and limited access to markets, even before the earth shook. 

Those farmers who did not lose their lives or homes are facing other problems: the death of their animals, aborted calves or reduced milk production because of their animals’ trauma, all of this damaging their only source of income.