February 2, 2024
News
When the devastating earthquake struck Türkiye and Syria in the early hours of 6 February last year, 48-year-old Songül lost everything in a matter of seconds. "Our house was completely destroyed in the earthquake. The tremors kept repeating. I hope we will never experience such fear and terror again," says Songül in the Turkish city of Malatya. The earthquake took the lives of nearly 60,000 people, and millions more lost their homes. A year after the earthquake, hundreds of thousands of people are still in temporary shelter and in need of help. How is Caritas Czech Republic supporting them?
Hundreds of thousands of people remain in temporary shelters
Songül and her husband are among hundreds of thousands of people in Türkiye who are still living in containers a year after the devastating earthquake. They have a small sleeping area, a makeshift bathroom and a kitchen. Over a thousand people live in the container town on the outskirts of Malatya where they live. Although the town is well organised, the containers are built side by side, without proper privacy. "People will have to stay in temporary shelters for at least two to three more years. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their homes and it will take time to provide new housing for all of them. That is why it is still necessary to provide these people with help and support," says Rukas Ibrahim, Country Director at Caritas Czech Republic in Türkiye and Syria. "Malatya in Türkiye is one of the areas that was heavily affected by the February earthquake. The devastation in the town is still visible today, we have seen shattered buildings, rubble and empty areas where houses stood just a year ago," Ibrahim added.
Caritas Czech Republic distributed hygiene supplies to people in the temporary container town outside Malatya, including feminine hygiene products, which are essential to ensure decent sanitation. We also built a playground in the area so that local children have somewhere to spend their free time. "On my last visit, I saw children playing on piles of gravel because they had nowhere else to occupy themselves. We are glad that today they are playing in the new playground and have a safe place to spend their free time," says Irena Menšíková.
The impact of the devastating earthquake is also still evident in neighbouring Syria, where tremors have hit areas in the north-west of the country that were already facing a major humanitarian crisis. There are internally displaced people here who have fled from other parts of the country to escape the fighting. The earthquake has exacerbated their desperate situation. In addition to immediate food and hygiene aid, we have distributed kitchen kits to people in Syria so that they can cook for themselves in makeshift conditions.
Helping people cope with the trauma of the earthquake
One year after the earthquake, people are still coping with the trauma caused by the devastating tremors. We have therefore provided much-needed psychological help and psychosocial support to help affected people cope with the trauma.
We also organised group therapy sessions for children and young people in Syria. Our colleagues organised leisure activities for children affected by the earthquake. In northwest Syria, we organised several awareness-raising trainings on earthquake preparedness and also on how parents can help their children overcome the trauma caused by the earthquake.
What our immediate post-earthquake assistance looked like
We started helping people in both Türkiye and Syria immediately after the earthquake. Together with our partner organisations, we distributed potable water and warm food, as well as food parcels and basic kitchen utensils. In addition, we provided hygiene supplies and the aforementioned psychological assistance to the locals.
The catastrophic earthquake hit both countries in the winter, when low temperatures prevailed in the area. We provided the affected people with safe shelter as well as warm clothes, thermal blankets and fuel to safely survive the winter.
In the Turkish province of Hatay, which was severely affected by the earthquake, we provided containers with portable toilets and showers in cooperation with our partners. The container homes provided the affected people with more dignified shelter and adequate sanitation facilities.
We helped people who had lost their personal documents in the earthquake to access legal services so that they could secure the necessary documents again.
We trained volunteers to provide immediate assistance
In natural disasters such as earthquakes, it is crucial to provide assistance in the first 72 hours, the sooner the better. We have been working in the Turkish-Syrian border region since 2013 and thanks to our collaboration with our partner organisation Violet, we have managed to create a network of volunteers trained in providing humanitarian aid.
Thanks to the training and knowledge that the volunteers had previously received from us, they knew in the first hours after the earthquake what to do and how to provide aid effectively. That is why the help reached many more people in a much shorter time. 62 civil society organisations trained by Caritas Czech Republic and Violet were involved in the immediate post-earthquake relief effort in Syria.
We supported people affected by the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria thanks to donors who contributed to the Caritas for Türkiye and Syria fundraising campaign. We are also helping thanks to funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and the European Union and in collaboration with partner organisations Violet, SARD and IBC.
