Jandaris, Syria – It was a celebration, a celebration of life for so many children and young people who survived one of the worst natural disasters in decades.

The large white tent was decorated with balloons and streamers, colorful games were marked on the floor and hula hoops of all kinds changed hands.

Among the people celebrated at the World Vision party was little Afraa, the baby who was born born when her mother died under the rubble the massive earthquakes that struck northwestern Syria and southern Turkey on February 6 last year, killing 4,500 people in Syria and about 50,000 in Turkey. She turns one on Tuesday.

“Ever since I was a child, people have said, ‘Hope comes from suffering,'” said Khalil Shami al-Suwadi, Afraa’s uncle by marriage.

“When I saw Afraa born under the rubble of her house on the day of the earthquake, I realized how true this is,” he added.

An entire family was wiped out

According to the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, Jandaris in Aleppo province was one of the areas most affected by the earthquake. More than 510 people were killed and at least 810 injured.

On the day of Afraa’s birth, her parents and four brothers died when their house in Jandaris collapsed in the earthquake.

After she was rescued from the rubble and taken to hospital for treatment, medical staff named her Aya. Later, her aunt Hala, the sister of Afraa’s 26-year-old father Abdullah, and her uncle Khalil changed her name to Afraa to honor her late mother.

She lives with her aunt and uncle and her six new siblings. Eleven-year-old Mal al-Sham is the oldest and the youngest is Ataa, another little girl who was born two days after Afraa and is also about to turn one.

In March last year, Hala told Al Jazeera over the phone: “I would never have given up on Afraa. She is my niece, my blood. A lot of people wanted to adopt her, but we didn’t want to. We will take care of them, just like we take care of our own children.”

She is still being cared for by her aunt along with her cousin Ataa and has recovered from the broken ribs and bruises she suffered in the rubble last year. Furthermore, she has taken her first steps and is babbling to herself.

“When she took her first step, I was incredibly happy. But I remembered her parents and how overjoyed they would have been if they had been with us,” al-Suwadi said.

“Baba” and “Mom”

“My heart has eight chambers for my wife and seven children [including Afraa]said al-Suwadi. “She is a gift from her parents, may they rest in peace.”

Afraa started saying a few words and called out “Mama” and “Baba”, her aunt Hala and her uncle Khalil.

“It was not the first time I heard the word ‘Baba’, but for some reason I felt a strange, indescribable feeling when Afraa said it,” al-Suwadi added.

Because she spends all day with her big cousins, Afraa is also constantly trying to talk to them, making demands and telling stories that no one is sure they fully understand.

The children play, argue and sleep together, and there is a particularly strong bond between her and her eight-year-old cousin Doaa.

“I love all my siblings, but Afraa is my favorite,” Doaa confessed. “I love playing with her and being close to her,” she said, adding that it goes both ways as Afraa prefers to be with Doaa at all times, including when playing and going to sleep.

“If she cries, my mother will hold her. But it doesn’t work, she keeps crying. But when I pick her up, she immediately stops crying,” Doaa said.

The al-Suwadis are hopeful and looking forward to the future with their seven children, but sometimes that sunny outlook is marred by occasional aftershocks that remind him of what happened a year ago.

“What happened to us in Jandaris was a disaster in every sense of the word and I pray that something like this never happens again,” he added.

But for one afternoon, children and their caregivers were able to gather in this lively, decorated tent and talk about their experiences, celebrate their time there together and marvel at how much almost one-year-old Afraa had grown.

Malik Abdulghani, an education officer at World Vision, told Al Jazeera: “Afraa’s presence at this event, which comes close to her birthday and the anniversary of the earthquake, symbolizes that there is hope at the heart of every hardship.”