The Syrian architect uses drone footage to help reconstruct homes

Taal Mardik: Syrian architect Abdel Aziz Al Mohammed could destroy his war when he returned after years. Now, their careful documentation of damage using drones helps to re -create it.34 -year -old Mohammed said, “When I first came back, I was surprised by the limits of destruction.”Walking through his devastated village Taal Mardikh in the Northwestern Idlib province of Syria, he said “I could not recognize anything, I could not even find my parents’ house”.About 1,500 houses of Tail Mardikh have been destroyed and the rest have been damaged, mainly due to bombing by the former Syrian Army.Mohammed, who ran away from bombing near the Turkish border in 2019, firstly returned to the leadership of an Islamist due to the ruler Bashar al -Assad.Now the architect located in Idlib City gave details of the houses and roads of Taal Mardikh before flee, and later used his drone to document destruction.When he returned, he spent two weeks carefully surveying the area, going home from home and making an interactive maps depicting wide conditions of each house.He said, “We entered the houses in fear, do not know what was inside, because the government controlled the area for five years,” he said.Under the blazing sun, Mohammed noticed that the workers restored a house in Taal Mardikh, the seat of one of the earliest states of the ancient Syria, connected to the archaeological site of Ebla.His documentation of the village helped gain support from Turkey-based non-government organizations, Shafk, who agreed to rebuild and rehabilitate 434 out of 800 damaged houses in Taal Mardich.The work is expected to be completed in August, and involves restoration of two wells and hygiene networks, at a cost of over a million dollars.– ‘full of hope’ –The Syrians have started returning home after Assad’s expulsion and followed the civil war of nearly 14 years, killing more than half a million people killed and moved millions of people internal and abroad.According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, more than 600,000 Syrians returned home from abroad, while about 1.5 million internal displaced people have returned to their original areas.The agency estimates that 1.5 million Syrians from abroad and two million internal displaced people may return by the end of this year.According to UNHCR data for May, currently around 13.5 million is displaced in internal or abroad.In Taal Mardikh, 45 -year -old Ala Gharib, only one of a few dozen inhabitants who are back.“I lived in a tent for seven years, and when liberation came, I returned to my village,” said Gharib, whose house is among the people ready for restoration.He is using a blanket in the form of a blanket door for his home with “no doors, no windows, nothing”.Once the Western sanctions are lifted, the new Syrian authorities expect international support for post -war rebuilding, the United Nations estimate may exceed $ 400 billion.Efforts are still limited to individuals or charitables, yet to launch a reconstruction campaign with the government.Architect Mohammed said that his dream was “for the reconstruction of the village, to return to the people and life”.He hoped that “we dream Syria … Syria is full of hope, built by its youth”.