Syrian quake survivor: “Every year I lose a son”

STORY: In a tent in the Syrian town of Jandaris, Khadija al-Hassan gathers her six grandchildren to break their Ramadan fast.

They are all she has left after she lost her four children.

Syria's civil war claimed two of her sons and another went missing.

Then she lost her surviving son and her home to February's devastating earthquake.

Ramadan is a particularly painful time for al-Hassan, because it's when families come together.

“I've been suffering for the past three years during Ramadan. Every year I lose a son, this is God's destiny. I have lost four sons."

“We used to sit and eat together but now there is nothing. I have my grandchildren left; there are six of them. My heart aches when I look at them."

During the earthquake, al-Hassan’s house collapsed over her, breaking her arm.

She says she screamed her son Mohamed's name and her grandchildren asked her why.

"I told them - because Mohamed died. They said 'no' and I said go and check. They went and saw that the whole house had collapsed. I said 'Mohamed is inside, right?' and they said yes. His daughter was brought out from the rubble fifteen hours later.”

Now she and the children live in a makeshift camp set up for displaced survivors.

The February 6 earthquakes were the worst natural disaster to strike modern-day Turkey.

More than 56,000 people were killed there and in neighboring Syria.

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