Omar was sleeping peacefully next to his older brother in their home in Antakya, the capital of Turkey's Hatay province, when the earth started shaking violently in the middle of the night.
The first tremor was enough for him to swiftly leap off the bed. He shook his brother, Youssef, to rouse him, but he was a heavy sleeper.
While Omar managed to flee their home as it started to crumble, Youssef did not wake up in time.
The 15-year-old was trapped under a wall as the house turned into a tomb. His body was pulled from the rubble three days later.
Omar, now 12, vividly remembers that night, on February 6 last year, when a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Hatay and 10 other provinces in southern Turkey, killing more than 50,000 people.
His voice is calm but the tears in his eyes betray his trauma as he describes how he rushed outside the collapsing house, calling for help from the neighbourhood.
Omar and his grandparents, who were trapped inside the house but rescued the following day, now live in a container designated for orphans and widows in the town of Reyhanli, on the border with Syria. Antakya, 40 kilometres away, still lies in ruins.
They survive on Omar's stipend from NGOs as his grandparents were injured during the earthquake and can no longer work.
Omar is one of four million children across Turkey who were affected by the earthquake, according to Unicef.
But, as a Syrian refugee, it was not the first tragedy to strike his short life.
Along with millions of other Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country, Omar's family moved to Turkey when he was just an infant.
His father died in the war and his mother abandoned her sons, leaving them to be raised by their grandparents.
“I raised two orphan children. I never thought I would lose one of them,” their grandmother, Nafle Ido, 62, said.
For the roughly two million Syrian refugees who live in the Turkey's earthquake-affected regions, the disaster only added to the grief of loss and displacement because of the war.
Children are especially at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the harrowing scenes of death and destruction after the earthquake, with symptoms including flashbacks, anxiety and behavioural issues, said Khaled Al Jadouh, a psychologist for the Syrian American Medical Society, known as Sams, told The National.
“Mental health needs for war-traumatised Syrian refugees have been gigantic since the earthquake,” Mr Al Jadouh said.
“Especially here in the province of Hatay, as it is one of the most impacted regions.”
The society has set up two mobile units to provide mental health support for children in Reyhanli, where many Syrian families from Antakya now live.
Omar, who joined the Sams programme a couple of weeks ago, is one of the 600 children in the area who received help from the society's mobile team in January.
“Omar had PTSD after the earthquake, but he is doing much better now,” Mr Al Jadouh said.
“I used to never speak about what happened. It is only here that for the very first time I spoke about the earthquake,” Omar said.
“It feels good.”
As a Syrian refugee in Turkey, a group that has been facing increasing racism in recent years, this may just be the beginning of the journey for the young man.
'Gigantic needs'
The need is such that Sams will soon open a health centre with a team of doctors and psychologists in Reyhanli for Syrian refugees, Mr Al Jadouh said, sitting in its new office.
The centre is awaiting official permission to open, but until then the Sams teams continue to visit orphanages, NGOs and homes to provide private and group sessions.
“We found ways to channel trauma through speech, play, drawing and singing,” said Yasmina, a Sams psychologist who asked that her full name be withheld.
On the day she spoke to The National she was visiting Sara Aldili, 28, and her family, originally from the Syrian province of Idlib.
Ms Aldili's husband died in the earthquake while trying to save their son. The boy was pulled out of the rubble alive but needed treatment in a hospital for three months.
She left her rented home in Antakya and now lives in a building for widows, paid for by a private charity, along with her five children.
“The earthquake has mentally exhausted my children. It's not easy what they have been through.
“I would have killed myself if I had been through such traumas, but I have to stay strong for my children,” Ms Aldili said as they played cheerfully around her, the youngest with his face caked in layers of paint.
There was no outward sign of the tragedies they had faced, but Yasmina said they had “been through a lot, from the bombs, the earthquake, to being buried alive”.
Ms Aldili said that Sams' programme helped not only her children but also herself.
“My well-being has improved a lot since I met them.”
A lengthy battle
Although the need for help with mental health problems is immense, the stigma attached to getting it remains an obstacle, Mr Al Jadouh said.
“It is improving, but many, especially adults, are hesitant to seek help.”
Despite an increase in efforts to help them, there is always a gap in meeting the needs of quake-affected Syrian refugees, some of whom are simply out of reach.
“No matter how much we work, there will always be needs that we cannot meet because they are so important,” said Nizar Alqayem, the programme director of Sams in Hatay.
A few kilometres away, about 70 Syrians affected by the earthquake living in a muddy camp of makeshift shelters have not received any form of health assistance in more than a month after an NGO suddenly stopped visiting.
The whole camp lives in destitution, especially the dozen widows and their children who have barely enough to survive.
“Most of them are above 12 [years old]; that’s usually when associations stop giving financial help for children who lost their father,” said Sheikh Ahmad, who set up the camp after the earthquake.
The children at the camp, as well as the adults, live in constant fear of another earthquake.
“It’s not that we can afford rent anyway, but my daughter is petrified by the idea of living in a concrete house, so we’re staying here,” one of the camp's residents said.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
You may remember …
Robbie Keane (Atletico de Kolkata) The Irish striker is, along with his former Spurs teammate Dimitar Berbatov, the headline figure in this season’s ISL, having joined defending champions ATK. His grand entrance after arrival from Major League Soccer in the US will be delayed by three games, though, due to a knee injury.
Dimitar Berbatov (Kerala Blasters) Word has it that Rene Meulensteen, the Kerala manager, plans to deploy his Bulgarian star in central midfield. The idea of Berbatov as an all-action, box-to-box midfielder, might jar with Spurs and Manchester United supporters, who more likely recall an always-languid, often-lazy striker.
Wes Brown (Kerala Blasters) Revived his playing career last season to help out at Blackburn Rovers, where he was also a coach. Since then, the 23-cap England centre back, who is now 38, has been reunited with the former Manchester United assistant coach Meulensteen, after signing for Kerala.
Andre Bikey (Jamshedpur) The Cameroonian defender is onto the 17th club of a career has taken him to Spain, Portugal, Russia, the UK, Greece, and now India. He is still only 32, so there is plenty of time to add to that tally, too. Scored goals against Liverpool and Chelsea during his time with Reading in England.
Emiliano Alfaro (Pune City) The Uruguayan striker has played for Liverpool – the Montevideo one, rather than the better-known side in England – and Lazio in Italy. He was prolific for a season at Al Wasl in the Arabian Gulf League in 2012/13. He returned for one season with Fujairah, whom he left to join Pune.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
RESULT
Los Angeles Galaxy 2 Manchester United 5
Galaxy: Dos Santos (79', 88')
United: Rashford (2', 20'), Fellaini (26'), Mkhitaryan (67'), Martial (72')
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
yallacompare profile
Date of launch: 2014
Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer
Based: Media City, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: 120 employees
Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
