As a sequel to its first residential compound, “Ataa for Humanitarian Relief” Association is getting ready to launch its second residential compound that is reserved for the displaced people in the area of Atmeh, rural Idlib, at the Syrian-Turkish borders.
The compound is called “Second Ataa Residential Compound” with about 750 residential units. It will be an extension to the First Ataa Residential Compound to have an open space between them, according to Abdul Rahman Shardoub, the director of “Ataa” Association’s branches.
Shardoub told Enab Baladi that “Ataa” compound is an overall residential center that provide the people inhabiting it with various needed services: A school that covers three thousand square meters, which accommodates three thousand students and a tow-store-mosque, the space of which is 600 meters.
The Compound also has a dispensary that provide people with medical, first aid and general healthcare services; the number of the people who benefit from the center’s services has reached eight thousand patients per month, in addition to the compound’s both external and internal markets that include 20 shops, children’s playgrounds and regular roads according to Shardoub’s description.
As part of the organization of the population within the compound and the maintenance of security within it, the founders established a police station that functions for 24-hours to preserve the safety of the families living there.
It is scheduled to open the housing complex in two stages. The first is in mid-July, after which 300 displaced and evacuated families will be received, and the second phase will be six months after the implementation of the first phase, so that all families are accommodated in an orderly and easy manner, according to one of “Ataa” Association’s officials.
The idea of the housing project, according to Abdul Rahman Shardoub, came as a result of the deteriorating living conditions of the displaced and evacuees in Northern Syria’s camps, which necessitated sheltering them in a way that preserves their human rights and dignity and guarantees the residents of the tents a decent life.
The project, which “Ataa” for Humanitarian Relief supervises, is funded by a number of charitable entities, on top of which are “Sheikh Abdullah Nouri Charity” and the “International Islamic Charity Organization,” which both function in Kuwait.
“Ataa” Association has already launched its first residential compound last year in the Atmah area, which accommodates 520 families. It has also decided to launch a third residential compound that would include 1500 housing units according to its initial plan, after finishing with the implementation of the Second Residential Compound.
“The Compound is not allocated to displaced people alone, but they are the priority,” according to the Association’s branches director, who stressed that “it will accommodate social segments from the different Syrian governorates in safe residential units that preserve their dignity and sense of stability in the shadow of the continuance displacement waves.”
Northern Syria has received thousands of displaced people from various parts of Syria, most recently from the eastern towns and villages of Ghouta, eastern Qalamun and southern Damascus regions, who are living in difficult conditions in prefabricated “caravans” and tents.