Aya, the baby born in the rubble of the devastating earthquake that affected Turkey and Syria, has finally been adopted by her paternal uncles. On Saturday, her aunt Hala and her uncle Khalil Al-Sawadi picked up her niece, whom they named Afraa, after her deceased mother.
The girl came to this world trapped in the ruins of what was to be her future home. She was found still attached to her mother by the umbilical cord, who was already dead, like her father and her siblings. Medical teams believe that she was rescued three hours after she was born.
The baby was taken to Jihan Hospital where she was treated and the identity of her relatives was verified. Finally, over the weekend, she was given up for adoption to her uncles as they were her closest living relatives.
"This girl means a lot to us because there is no one left in her family besides this baby. She will be a memory for me, her aunt and all our relatives in her mother and father's village," said her uncle Khalil Al- Sawadi to the Reuters agency.
She was carrying the little girl, renamed Afraa, wrapped in a pink blanket, in one arm and her own newborn daughter, Ataa, swaddled in blue, in the other. She was born three days after the earthquake and Sawadi said that she would raise them together.
To carry out the adoption of his niece, the uncle confirmed to Reuters that "there were legal procedures to confirm the genetic relationship, as well as a DNA test."
Images of the so-called 'miracle baby' circulated widely on social media after the earthquake. They showed a rescue worker crawling down a rubble hill carrying a tiny, dust-covered baby.
Jandaris, where Sawadi lives, is one of the hardest-hit towns in the rebel-held northern parts. Other children were orphaned there by the quake, after surviving years of bombing in the nearly 12-year war raging in Syria.
In Syria, the earthquake on February 6 has left more than 5,800 dead, the majority in the north controlled by the opposition. However, government-controlled cities have also suffered heavy damage.
