IDLIB, Syria — Mohammad Issa puts down the tiles he's been carrying on his shoulders, then begins stacking the bricks, placing layers of cement in between to build the foundation for an additional room to widen his small house.

Issa is a construction worker who has been living for two months with his wife and four children in this house. Once he completes his work, the house will have two rooms in addition to a kitchen and bath.

New Ratyan village, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) north of al-Dana city in Idlib governorate, is his home now. Displaced people originally from the town of Ratyan in northern Aleppo province have established their new village and named it New Ratyan to remind them of the place they were forced to leave in February 2016 after Syrian regime forces and allied militias seized control.

Cement spots stain Issa’s worn-out clothes. As he takes a short break, he tells Al-Monitor, “Since our displacement from Ratyan in the Aleppo countryside three years ago, we started moving from camp to camp close to the Turkish borders. We had a rough time, and we suffered a lot. The tents neither protected us from the summer heat nor the winter cold.”