* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
On the eve of the Eid holiday, I visited some of the 700 families who have received food and blankets distributed by CARE this month.
After the drive south from the small city of Suruç in southeastern Turkey, we visited two lonely tents in the middle of a desolate field between vast swathes of cotton cultivation about three kilometers from the Syrian border. 45 people, mostly women and children, were staying in the two tents, one large and one small. A middle-aged man came over to talk with us. “We lost everything,” he said. “They killed our animals.”
The aid that they are currently receiving will get them through the coming days, but humanitarian agencies need to step up efforts in order to meet the growing needs, especially as winter approaches, while continuing to help those already sheltering here who have no means to earn livelihoods in Turkey.
In a nearby village, an unfinished mosque structure served as a collective center for about 200 women and children. An elderly woman with Kurdish facial tattoos hung back and looked on, surrounded by a group of squirming children. A younger woman told us that most of them had left Kobane 10 days before to escape the fighting.
“A lot of people have died,” she said, “there is constant shelling.” While we spoke we could hear the repetitive percussion of the fighting across the border in the distance. Women and children are particularly vulnerable in armed conflict, and many of the women have been forced to flee without their husbands. Many of those crossing the border reported seeing and experiencing horrible atrocities and they carry psychological scars that will need to be addressed.
