Baby Born in Syria During Devastating Earthquake Adopted by Her Aunt and Uncle

A baby born in northern Syria during the February 6 earthquake that has left more than 46,000 people dead in Turkey and Syria was handed over to her aunt and uncle over the weekend. The baby’s parents and her siblings were killed by a collapsed building in the rebel-held town of Jinderis in Syria’s Aleppo province, but the newborn was pulled from the rubble by rescue workers in footage that spread like wildfire over social media as a small bright spot in the devastation of the temblor. The baby’s paternal aunt, Hala, and uncle by marriage, Khalil Al-Sawadi, saw her for the first time on Saturday when they adopted her and picked her up from Jihan Hospital in the Afrin district, Reuters reported. The couple named her Afraa, after her deceased mother. She will be raised as the sibling of the couple’s infant daughter, Ataa, who was born three days after the earthquake. “This girl means so much to us because there’s no-one left of her family besides this baby. She’ll be a memory for me, for her aunt and for all of our relatives in the village of her mother and father,” Sawadi told Reuters.