Christopher Black
Everybody in the Algerian towns affected by the earthquake three weeks ago knows the name of Hamida Ammari. The 34-year-old single mother, who comes from a modest home in Hrawa, never imagined she would one day be so famous. Her success story is repeated in all the camps for displaced people, with many people trying to follow in her footsteps.
The earthquake happened on 21 May, killing over 2,200 people, injuring 9,500 and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
Minutes after the 6.7 tremor earthquake struck on 21 May, Hamida organised rescue operations by calling on 17 of her Algerian Red Crescent (ARCS) colleagues and deploying them in several locations in Hrawa to search for survivors.
“The volunteers managed to rescue three people, transported many injured to hospital and assist in the search for bodies” Hamida explains. “One week before the quake, our volunteers had a first aid and rescue course, as if we had an intuition that this would happen” she adds.
Hamida divided the rest of volunteers into groups. She asked the first group to go house to house to collect blood donations. The second was responsible for finding doctors in the area. And she went with the third group to the nearest hospital in AinTaya to look for medicines.
Early the next morning, she walked from store to store to convince shopkeepers to donate bread and cake. When she received enough powdered milk, she prepared many litres of baby milk and, with the volunteers, delivered breakfast to the homeless. “I didn’t do this on my own. The population wanted to help but needed someone to organise their goodwill,” she says, adding, “the solidarity of the Algerian people is what counts”.
Today Hamida plays a key role in running the Hrawa camp, where 140 families are accommodated in 118 tents put up by the civil protection. “We are providing people with food, mattresses and non-food items,” she says.
After taking the initiative to cook for the families, Hamida is trying to solve the only problem she is facing which is the sanitation of the camp. “There are only four latrines and two bathrooms. I am negotiating with the municipal authorities to build more latrines in order to prevent any outbreak of diseases,” she explains.
Many volunteers, like Adlan Melkoo, are still working long hours. The 24-year-old is still wearing the shirt he was wearing on the first day of the earthquake, when he was looking for survivors in Dellys.
The shirt, once white, now has new reddish colour. The shirt has become the most precious thing he has. It witnessed his happiest moments, when he succeeded in rescuing three babies. But it was also there for his saddest experiences - when he carried more than 80 dead bodies from the rubble and presented them to their love ones.
Adlan keeps repeating the world “normal”. For him, carrying bodies, or often parts of bodies, seeing orphans looking for their mothers - all of this has become normal for him.
One image comforts him and allows him to sleep deeply at night - the look on the faces of the two boys he managed to rescue in Reghaia. “The mother was holding them in her arms when a wall collapsed on top of her. She died but her children were protected by her body” he said. “When I rescue one person, I feel as though I have rescued all humanity.”
Adlan, who also rescued a seven-year-old girl also from the same building, is now active in helping people at Dellys camp, where 133 families are accommodated.
The actions of Algerian Red Crescent volunteers convinced Ahmed Bouchenafa to join them. His best friend, Sara, who was a fellow student at the Fine Art School in Boumerdes, died under the rubble of her home in the town. “I wanted to be a volunteer to keep alive her memory,” he says. “Helping people, bringing joy to someone sad, playing with orphans - all of this helps me to have a positive perspective to life.”
The death of a loved one is not the only motive for becoming a volunteer – sometimes a miracle, like the one that saved Mansour Abdel Razak’s family, can provide a reason.
“On 21 May, a miracle saved my family. They came out alive from under the rubble. To cherish this I want to serve humanity, as I saw the volunteers doing” Mansour says.
Related links:
Algeria: appeals, updates and reports
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