When the little Afraa was found in the rubble of a collapsed building in Syriathe umbilical cord was still attached to the mother, who died shortly after giving birth. The video of his miraculous rescue after the devastating earthquake of February 6 that struck Turkey and Syria, causing over 44,000 deaths, went around the world with multiple requests for adoptions.
Six months have passed since then and little Afraa is now a healthy and happy baby. The child, writes the BBC online, lives in the house of her uncles who are raising her together with their 7 children in the Syrian city of Jindayris, not far from the Turkish border. “She’s still small, but she reminds me of her father and her sister Nawara, especially her smile. They too died in the earthquake,” says his uncle, Khalil al-Sawadi.
Immediately after the devastating earthquake that hit Jindayris, Afraa’s mother went into labor and gave birth under the rubble of her house: the woman died before rescuers found them. Little Afraa was the only member of her family to survive: her father, Abu Rudaina, and her 4 brothers died, along with her mother. The video of the baby’s rescue was shared on social media and went viral: admitted to hospital, she was initially given the name Aya, which means miracle in Arabic, but then the uncles who adopted her decided to give her the name of Afraa, like the mother.