Brick-by-brick, hope-by-hope the people of Kobani in northern Syria are still trying to rebuild what is left of their beloved town that has suffered greatly at the hands of the so-called Islamic State. An estimated 70 percent of Kobani was destroyed while under siege between 2014 and 2015, with hundreds killed.
Despite this, the people of Kobani have come together since the worst of the violence ended to show their support to Afrin, 187 km away. The latter Kurdish city is the latest in a long line of Syrian localities targeted in Syria’s horrific war.
Joint Help for Kurdistan
It is early in the morning when Dr Nemam Ghafouri joins a group of men who are loading hundreds of bags of fresh bread onto a truck.
As a humanitarian with ‘Joint Help for Kurdistan’, Dr Ghafouri has seen firsthand how Kobani and its long-suffering people have struggled in the aftermath of the IS invasion. Yet their own problems have not stopped people from donating what little they have to others.
"It is really interesting walking around the street and asking people for diapers, children's shoes and clothes [for the people of Afrin]. Kobani is still in ruins but life is growing day-by-day so much. It's amazing," Dr Ghafouri says in her video.
"I think the part of hope is much [stronger] than the sadness [you feel] when you see everywhere is just ruined."
Afrin the scene of the latest episode of Syria's bloody war
Syrian rebels backed by Turkey have taken control of the centre of the city of Afrin. Prior to this, Afrin had been an oasis of peace and stability in which more than 300,000 refugees had found a home in the otherwise war-torn Syria. But now the intense shelling and the Turkish airstrikes have forced over a million people to flee their homes.
Kobani itself is facing its own challenges - by the time the town was liberated in late January 2015, the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS had dropped more than 700 bombs on and around the town, turning Kobani to rubble.
Though it has been cleared of ISIS fighters, civilians have been cautioned not to return as ISIS left the place rigged with explosives. But despite this, refugees continue to return, to pick up the pieces of their lives and try to start over.
