An orphanage has been opened in the self-administered neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud (Şêxmeqsûd) in Aleppo. The facility is run by an association for the protection of orphans in cooperation with the people's councils of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah (Eşrefiye) and the Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor a Kurd).

Currently four children live in the two-storey house. In the institution they are taught by two teachers in Kurdish and Arabic. The day for the children usually starts after breakfast with sports and games on the playground in front of the building. Afterwards there are lessons.

Mistefa Sido from the Child Protection Association explains: "There was a need for such a facility in our neighbourhood. This house is a place where the children are safe and can develop. We have mobilized all our resources for the construction of the house and of course we need support from society.”

Self-government in Sheikh Maqsoud

The neighborhoods of Ashrafiyah and Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo are successful examples of self-government. The population did not leave their neighbourhoods during the war but mounted resistance. Sheikh Maqsoud has been the target of jihadist groups since the beginning of 2013.

Already when in 1915, in the course of the genocide of the Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire, countless people were rounded up and sent on death marches over impassable mountains towards Aleppo, the neighborhood was a safe haven for the survivors of the young Turkish atrocities. Just as the place offered its protection to the Armenians, Sheikh Maqsoud has been a place of refuge for Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen, Aramaic, Assyrian and Armenian people since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.